McMahan Observatory

The McMahan Observatory is an amateur observatory at 29°49'29.7"N 97°32'47.5"W, near McMahan Texas. It enjoys reasonably dark skies allowing naked-eye observation of 6th magnitude stars and rifts in the milky way on clear nights. Typical seeing conditions are 2-2.5 arcseconds and nights occasionally occur with conditions as good as 1.5 arcseconds. The Observatory sponsors the McMahan Clear Sky Clock [McMahan Clear Sky Clock by Atilla Danko].

The primary activities of the observatory are extrasolar planet (exoplanet) transit observations, imaging obscure globular clusters (Terzans, Palomars, and other non NGC clusters such as UKS-1) and imaging peculiar galaxies. We also participate in various AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) CCD campaigns.

Although most of the observatory activities revolve around photometry of various kinds, we also occasionally try to take some pretty pictures or just stargaze for a bit of relaxing fun.

The observatory owner is a member of the Austin Astronomical Society [AAS Website] and the Central Texas Astronomical Society [CTAS Website] .