CACTUS

CACTUS was a short-lived gamma-ray observatory built into a decommissioned solar power plant near Daggett, California, and demolished a decade after it stopped observing.

About CACTUS

CACTUS, short for Converted Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope Using Solar-2, was an Air Cherenkov Telescope located outside Daggett, California, near Barstow. It began life as Solar Two, a solar power plant, before being converted into an observatory in 2001.

History

Astronomical observations at CACTUS began in the fall of 2004, run by the University of California, Davis on a site owned by Southern California Edison. Funding for observational operations from the National Science Foundation ran out after the facility's last observing runs in November 2005, and the structure was demolished in 2009.

Location & getting there

The site was in the Mojave Desert near Daggett, California, at an elevation of about 610 metres, close to Barstow. As the facility no longer exists, there is nothing left on site to visit.

Visiting CACTUS

CACTUS was demolished in 2009 and is not open to visitors; nothing of the observatory remains at the former Solar Two site today.

See your named star from here

CACTUS itself is gone, but the idea behind it, pointing an instrument at precise sky coordinates, is exactly what happens when you name a star. Find an active observatory near you, look up your star's position in the catalogue, and ask staff to help you spot it.