NF/ Observatory Home Page

A new scope(left) from U. of Arkansas at Little Rock has been refitted, to provide a new generation of automated observations. The telescope is a redesigned Group 128, 24" classical cassegrain, currently configured at F10. The camera has taken over 130,000 images with the ATIS(automatic telescope instruction set).'Click' to see what it takes to refit a scope like this. The new facility is in collaboration with the faculty and students from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; The University of Arkansas, Little Rock, The Arkansas School for Mathematics and Science and the Arts, in Hot Springs, Henderson State University, and Silver Schools, in Silver City, New Mexico.

The first generation automated scope was operational in 1991. The scope is at the NF/ Ranch has an automated 17.5 inch telescope housed in a movable dome(right). The telescope also used a ATIS file to make nightly observations. The observatory was linked to Silver City and the Internet, 30 miles away, with a digital radio link. This research observatory is also associated with Western New Mexico University in Silver City. EMAIL Bill at There is no provision for the Public to visit the Observatory

Site Information

• The NFO Webscope Project with Arkansas: webcams and weather, history, astronomers, timeline, and progress
• Tonights Images and Image Index
• Project Astro
• Search Image Database Search First Generation Telescope Image Database
• The Sidewalk Solar System Dedicated May 1st, 2000 
• Sky Conditions the next Two Nights
• Weather archive
• Weather conditions
• Our Observations of Eclipse 2001 in Africa, Eclipse from our Observation in Romania August 11, 1999
• Recent Aurora Borealis Pictures
• Evidence of Ancient Astronomers
• State of the Art Observatories in 16th Century Europe
• 1000 galaxies, baseline reference for McDonnald SN Search
• First generation telescope, description and history,Projects,Publications
• The automatic-scope-internal-dialog from last night
• The New Wind Harp, An Aoelian Harp and The Wind Harp at NFO
• Job Application (the humor of reality)
• Ethernet Lightning Protection Circuit
• The Trebuchet Siege Weapon demonstrates Physics
• Grant County, Astronomy in Education  and Educational Links; Public Showing of the Starlab Planetarium
• IAU Circulars
• Archived Usage Statistics - Current Daily

NFO Images : (256 color JPEG)

• New 24 inch images

• True Color Combined Image by LaPlata 8th Grade (using the NFO Webscope) of M43 M78 M51
• True Color Combined Images M51 M1 M27 M13 M31 M8 M43 M72 M37 M71 M16 M17 M57 NGC6940 NGC7009
• True Color Image Index
• False Color Images M27 M16 M17 M57 M33 and NGC253 Trifid M8
• Deep Sky Field NFO3, November 2005

• 17 inch images

• The Crab, a supernova explosion in 1054
• World's First Picture of the Supernova in M81
• Globular Cluster, M22
• Comet Swift-Tuttle
• The Orion Nebula, M42
• The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51
• The Dumbbell Nebula, M27
• The Lagoon Nebula
• The Eagle Nebula, Home of the famous'Gaseous Pillars'image from HST
• The Omega Nebula
• The Ring Nebula
• Central Andromeda Galaxy Northeast andSouthwest
• Supernova explosion in NGC 5061
These images were taken in FITS format at NF/ Observatory. They were converted to jpg format by a program written by Joe Planisky. With this program and other new software and hardware, we brought NFO 'ONLINE'. All the nightly images will come up on the page as they are taken with the new instrument.
• NASA Image of the Day

Funded in part by support from the NASA Arkansas Space Grant Consortium, through a Small Grants Program, administered by the American Astronomical Society, and through logistic support from The Silver School District, in Silver City, NM. Also funded through grants from:

with past funding from:
Hubble Space Telescope, IDEAS Grant
and from the V.M. Slipher Fund of the National Academy of Science

We would also like to thank Western NM Telephone for the donation of microwave equipment,
and Texas-NM Power Company for support of Educational and Observatory Projects.