On the night of August 20, 2003, I tried to measure the local horizon at the RIT Observatory, as seen from the 12-inch telescope in the dome building, and from the 16-inch telescope in the roll-off building. These aren't precise values, but may be useful for rough planning purposes. I only measured the horizon from the east-north-east to south-west; all the other values are guesses. All values are in degrees.
12-inch horizon. The dome sets a lower limit of about 8 degrees.
# Az Alt 0 8 85 8 90 22 100 22 110 7 120 18 130 19 140 23 150 23 160 15 170 15 180 13 190 11 200 8 210 8 359 8
16-inch horizon. The dome blocks the sky to the north, but I didn't measure that position, and leave it as the others below. The lower limit is presumably smaller than the 8-degree minimum of the 12-inch, but I don't know exactly how much smaller. The 5-degree value is a guess. The roof of the building sets the limit from azimuth 145 to 211.
# Az Alt 0 5 70 5 75 23 84 26 92 27 107 22 115 30 123 33 142 21 145 19 151 27 153 28 161 31 170 34 180 34 190 31 198 27 203 22 211 11 220 5 359 5
If one stands at the western edge of the concrete pad, the trees to the southeast are about 17 degrees tall.