Table Mountain Observatory


Table Mountain Observatory is an astronomical observation facility operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is located in Big Pines, California, in Angeles National Forest near Wrightwood, north-northeast of Los Angeles, California, in the United States.
TMO is part of JPL's Table Mountain Facility. The larger site hosts a number of non-astronomical projects. The site was first used by the Smithsonian Institution in 1924, which conducted atmospheric, solar, and astronomical observations for many years. JPL took over the lease in 1962. The observatory conducts high-precision astrometric observations to support NASA and international spacecraft mission navigation, confirmation and recovery of near-Earth objects such as comets and asteroids that may potentially impact the Earth, and technology development.
The main-belt asteroid 84882 Table Mountain was named in honor of the observatory.

List of discovered minor planets

More than 260 minor planets were discovered at TMO, often referred to as "Wrightwood" the Minor Planet Center and credited to several astronomers, most notably to James Young, but also to other astronomers such as Jack B. Child, Greg Fisch, A. Grigsby, D. Mayes, and Mallory Vale. The MPC also directly credits TMO with the discovery of one numbered main-belt asteroid .
10 September 2002

Instruments

Two telescopes are currently operated at TMO:
see

Former instruments

Former instruments at TMO include:

Honours

The main-belt asteroid 84882 Table Mountain, discovered by James Whitney Young at TMO in 2003, was named in honor of the observatory. Naming citation was published on 28 October 2004.