Starhome Observatory is a private facility built by and operated by John Sanford and located in Milo, 7 miles north of Springville, California. Milo doesn't exist any more as a settlement, but is found on many maps as it was a lumber town in the early 1900's and had a post office. The observatory is a two story building with a partial sliding roof, and houses two telescopes, a C-14 on Titan (Losmandy) mount, and an Astrophysics 6" f/9 refractor. The observatory is located on a small ridge affording good seeing most of the time. The altitude is approximately 2230' (699m) above sea level. Climate is good, with clear nights from May through November and about 1/3 of the time in winter months.

Starhome is the small white building on the ridge shown above. The mountain is 9300' Moses Mountain of the Sierra Nevada range in California.

Starhome is dedicated to two primary purposes. A public education function is served by visits from college and high school classes, and other groups, and the public on regularly held star party evenings. The other main purpose is to produce astronomical imagery for use in a stock photography business and for research into variable stars and supernovae. Reports are made regularly to the AAVSO and Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers.

A C-14 (a 14 inch Celestron product), which normally operates with an f/3.3 or f/6.3 focal reducer, and is mounted on a Losmandy Titan go-to equatorial mounting. A 6 inch refractor is used for lunar and planetary work, and is on a Losmandy GM-100 mount. Both can be used with a Starlight Xpress SXV-H9 megapixel astronomical CCD camera and film cameras with a variety of lenses. A 16-inch f/5.85 newtonian/dobsonian reflector and a 6-inch Maksutov telescope are both used for remote star parties and observing away from Starhome.

Starhome is used to produce illustration-quality images for the media, through my local photo agency called Astrostock and internationally through Science Photo Library in London. Also occasionally video is produced such as for the 2003 Mars opposition and the Shuttle reentry video made on February 1st as the Columbia started to disintegrate. NASA used this footage to help analyze the failure and NBC News broadcast the clip worldwide on Dateline and other programs.

Starhome Observatory
starhome@springvillewireless.com
41869 Balch Park Road Springville, CA. 93265
Fax: 559-539-3919