Jack Newton: Orion Nebula (M42) and NGC 1977
from the Arizona Sky Village, Meade 7" APO.


Arizona Sky Village

Now available for Rent - A Celestron C-8 Deluxe f/10 Telescope!

We are now offering the option of renting a Celestron-C8 Deluxe 2032mm f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope. Please click here for more information"

The house is part of the unique communities of Portal, Arizona and the Arizona Sky Village. The small town of Portal (population 250) sits at the mouth of Cave Creek Canyon, which draws it's year-round flow of water from the looming 6,000-10,000' Chiricauhua Mountains to the west.

The new and unique Amateur Astronomy Community, the Arizona Sky Village, provides you with some of the clearest, darkest and most transparent skies in the Continental United States. With your naked eyes, or with the aid of binoculars or a telescope, you can see millions of stars, star clusters, and the Milky Way Galaxy as few have ever seen them!

World-famous astrophotographer Jack Newton, co-founder of the Village, agrees that the skies at night are are so clear and dark that you can see our Milky Way Galaxy cast a shadow!

In addition to the spectacular astronomical viewing in Portal, you can visit the many premier observatories nearby. Of southeastern Arizona's dozen major mountain ranges, only a few lack astronomical facilities. Southeastern Arizona and Southwstern New Mexico contain most of the major optical, solar and radio telescopes in the Continental United States. Near Tucson, there are three major astronomical observatories, including the Mount Lemmon complex , Kitt Peak National Observatory, and The Mount Hopkins Multiple-Mirror Telescope complex. The newest telescope - The Large Binocular Telescope - lies near Safford, AZ on the 10,700-foot summit of Mount Graham. It has two 8.4 meter mirrors, each of which is over half again the diameter of Palomar. When fully operational, it will have the greatest resolving power of any telescope on earth, and ten times the resolving power of the Hubble Space Telescope. It has been designed to be the most advanced land-based telescope for the detection of extra-solar planets.

Read a great article about Arizona Sky Village, Portal and our house by astrophotographer Chuck Webb of the Fraser Vally Astonomer Society here.

Another great artical from the New York Times about the Arizona Sky Village was published on June 8, 2007 here
(free registration required)

Chuck Webb, view of the Sagittarius Region of the
Milky Way from our backyard telescope pad

Kluas Brasch and the Milky Way; Picture taken by Terence Dickinson from our backyard

JACK NEWTON: M13 from the Arizona Sky Village, Meade 16" UHTC

JACK NEWTON: Zodiacal Light and the Rising Milky Way from the Arizona Sky Village, Canon Digital EOS Rebel

Backyard Telescope 'Pad'

NGC 6946 - This color image of the face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 6946, was taken by the Large Binocular Telescope on 18 September 2006. NGC 6946 lies at a distance of about 16 million light years from earth. The false-color composite was made from images taken through near-ultraviolet, blue, and green filters, using one primary mirror and one Large Binocular Camera (blue optimized).

JACK NEWTON: The Great Andromeda Galaxy M31
from the Arizona Sky Village, Meade 16" UHTC

M1, The Crab Nebula. This color image was taken at the Large Binocular Telescope during November 2006 by Vincenzo Testa and collaborators from Rome Observatory. The image is a true-color composite composed of separate images in red, green and blue light obtained by the 36 megapixel Large Binocular Camera at the prime focus of the left 8.4m primary mirror

Mack Fox, a June 2013 guest, took this panoramic view of our house and the early summer Milky Way
using a Canon 60Da camera with an 8mm fisheye lens

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