ASTRONOMY FACILITIES

Saddleback College Observatory houses a Mead 16" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a permanent equatorial pier. This instrument is primarily used for solar, planetary, and lunar viewing. It does, however, lend itself for public viewing during school sponsored star parties. Coupled with electronic imaging devices, this telescope provides real time images which are displayed live in the classrooms.

The Saddleback College Observational Astronomy class offers twenty 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes with roof-mounted permanent piers which are used during lab exercises.

In addition to traditional asrophotography using 35mm emulsion film, astronomy students at Saddleback use advanced digital imaging systems. CCD imaging is done in both video and digital formats.

Saddleback College Astronomy's large aperture telescopes  used on field trips include a 16" f/5 Newtonian on a German equatorial mount (seen in the picture), a 16" Dobsonian, and a 24" Newtonian with portable truss-tube structure. These so called "light buckets" provide exquisite views of deep space objects.