Horizons at the RIT Observatory

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.