MARSTOWN
S   O   L   A   R        P   O   W   E   R   E   D
OBSERVATORY

New Windsor, Maryland (USA)


May 20 Solar Eclipse
The central path of the May 20 annular solar eclipse began in China on the morning of Monday May 21, then crossed the International Date Line, and ended in the Western United states on the evening of Sunday May 20.

The MTO director happend to be in Denver, Colorado on business. He took along a camera, telephoto lens and solar filter, and a Coronodo PST Hydrogen-Alpha telescope. From the observing location just south of Denver, the moon partially blocked 80% of the sun. The image above was shot about two minutes prior to maxiimum eclipse

(Photo credit: MTO)

Marstown Observatory is located in Carroll County, Maryland one mile from the unincorporated hamlet of Marston. The nearest town is historic New Windsor (established in 1797) located four miles northwest of the observatory. The closest major cities are Baltimore (30 miles ESE) and Washington, DC (50 miles S).

Space Shuttle Discovery

Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery comes in for final approach to Dulles International Airport in Virginia riding atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with its landing gear in the down position, as it is being escorted by a NASA T-38 trainer jet. This photograph was taken from the roof of the I-Max theatre at the Smitsonian Institution National Air & Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly.

In its career, Discovery made 39 trips into space -- more than any other spacecraft in existence. Discovery is now part of the permanent collection at the museum.

Click above image to open larger sized image (288 KB)

(Photo credit: MTO)

NASA's "5 in 5" Rocket Launch

ATREX gas release
Starting at 04:58 a.m. EDT on March 27, NASA launched five sounding rockets in five minutes from the Wallops Island Test Facility in Virginia as part of its Annomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) program. Two Terrier-Improved Malemutes, two Terrier-Improved Orions and one Terrier-Oriole rocket released trimethyl aluminum to create glowing clouds over the Atlantic Ocean. The above image is a 19 second exposure taken from MTO using a tripod mounted Canon Rebel digital camera shooting at ISO 800 through a standard lens set at f5.6. The resulting image was processed with an unsharp mask to bring out detail.

Click above image to open larger sized image (1.84 MB)

(Photo credit: MTO)

MTO would like to thank everyone who donated their time and materials, or helped in the construction of the observatory..
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Current Local Conditions at
Marstown Observatory:

US Naval Observatory Master Clock
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Marstown Observatory Clear Sky Clock

Clocks for good observing sites


Bear Branch Nature Center (Wesminter, MD)


Morgan County Observatory (Berkeley Springs, WV


Tuckahoe State Park (MD)


Mountain Meadows Observatory (WV)


Kile Knob (WV)


Cherry Springs State Park (PA)

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URL of this page: marstown.us.

Contact the MTO Director at marstown@gmail.com.

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