ENDOR observatory shown with the roof open.
The Celestron 14 inch scope, companion Borg 76 mm guide scope, and a SBIG STL water-cooled imaging camera.
Monitoring and control systems in the ENDOR observatory.
Hardware setup used by the ENDOR observatory.
Control systems used by the ENDOR observatory.
M51 image taken from ENDOR observatory.
Comet ISON image taken from ENDOR observatory.
M1 image taken from ENDOR observatory.
The Eagle Nest Digital Observatory (ENDOR) was designed and built by the Whitmer family in the fall of 2001. Located South of Sierra Vista, in the foot hills of the Huachuca Mountains at 5,000 foot elevation, our hill-side property presented a challenge in finding a suitable building site where the sky was not partially obstructed by the surrounding terrain and man-made objects. The roof-top installation, with the telescope on a 21 foot pier in an 8 x 8 foot enclosure, provides an unobstructed view of the night sky. ENDOR contains a Celestron 14 inch scope, a companion Borg 76 mm guide scope, and a SBIG STL water-cooled imaging camera. The Paramount ME mount and cameras are remotely operated with TheSkyX Planetarium program from a control room located below the observatory on the 2nd floor of the building. The observatory is protected by a roll-off building when not being used for deep-sky imaging.