Welcome to the Mountain Skies Observatory Home Page.

Mountain Skies Observatory
“Mountain Skies Observatory” is located in Lyman, Wyoming at an elevation 6900 feet. Designed and built by Curtis MacDonald it is the largest privately owned observatories in the region. The main telescope at MSO is a computer controlled 20-inch f/11.5 classical cassegrain, on a massive German equatorial mount.

 MSO is used frequently by the Bridger Valley Astronomical Society (BVAS) as a site for their star parties. The observatory is also used to teach astronomy to the local areas school children, and the boy and girl scouts. Individual community groups have also enjoyed the stars from MSO.

The clear dry pollution free skies of Wyoming produce excellent astronomical observing skies. Stars down to 7th magnitude were often seen with the naked eye at MSO.  Galaxies and Planetary nebula often observed along with the Gravitational Lens in Ursa Major (957 +557 A+B) and the Globular clusters of the Andromeda Galaxy. A tail over 90 degrees long for Comet Hyakutake was seen at Mountain Skies Observatory in March of 1996.
 

The History of Mountain Skies Observatory
Laramie, Wyoming
“Mountain Skies Observatory” was originally located 7 miles north of Laramie, Wyoming at an elevation 7200 feet.  Operational since March of 1992, MSO was used frequently by the Laramie Astronomical Society & Space Observers and Cheyenne Astronomical Society as a site for their star parties. The observatory was also used to teach students astronomy through the University of Wyoming noncredit programs and varies community groups.
 

November 1997, my old friend gets a new home.
Lyman, Wyoming
A change in my career resulted in the dismantling and relocation of Mountain Skies Observatory in November 1997.   Reconstructed in August of 1999 the new home of MSO is the Bridger Valley in southwestern Wyoming.  The valley contains the small towns of Lyman, Mountain View, Urie, and Fort Bridger.  Total population 5000, elevation 6900 feet. The new site well be in the City of Lyman, and has the potential to have darker skies then the Laramie site. The nearest large cities are Rock Springs & Green River, Wyoming (pop. 30,000) 60 miles to the east. Evanston, Wyoming (pop. 9,000) 40 miles to the west over a mountain range and Salt Lake, Utah (pop. 750,000) 120 miles to west and shielded by Wasatch Mountain ranges.  Missing is the GLOW to the south that was produced by the 2 million people of the Denver complex, this has been replaced by the dark skies of the High Uintas Wilderness Area. This has vastly improved the low southern skies for observing. This fact was proven when a 15th magnitude planetary nebula was observed just 10 degrees above the southern horizon; with MSO original 12.5" telescope something not possible from the Laramie site.

The location in a neighborhood on the southwest side of Lyman has produced a few streetlights. However the City of Lyman declared "Having an observatory in there city would provide an educational opportunity that would be a benefit to the community" and shielded the street lights with Hubbell sky shields at no cost to me.  Explaining to my neighbors what I was building and showing them Jupiter and Saturn resulted in all the back pouch lights going off.
Thank you very much to the City of Lyman and my neighbors.

For detailed information on the construction and reconstruction of MSO click here.

Mountain Skies Telescopes
Mountain Skies Observatory originally housed a home built 12 1/2” f/8 Newtonian reflector on a massive German equatorial   mount. In August 2000 the mount was up graded with new clock drive. The old scope was replaced with a new 20" f/11.5 classical cassegrain and a computer GoTo system.  Other instruments at the observatory included an 8” Newtonian reflector, an 8” Wright- Newtonian reflector and a 5” Refractor.
For more information on MSO’s 20" click here.
For more information on MSO’s 12 1/2” click here.

Photos and CCD Images taken from Mountain Skies Observatory

“Although building the observatory required a considerable investment in time, the end result has more the lived up to my expectations. With a permanent site sheltered from the elements, full of charts, catalogs and computers that can be readied for use in just a few minutes, my observing time has more then tripled. The large size of the dome (20 feet in diameter and over 16 feet high) permits room for guests and expansion to a larger equipment.” (1992)

Links of Interest

Send mail to Curtis MacDonald at DeepSky@union-tel.com
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