Mount Lemmon Observatory

Mount Lemmon Observatory, also known as the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory, is an astronomical observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains, about 28 kilometres north-east of Tucson, Arizona. The site lies in the Coronado National Forest and is used by the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory under special permission from the United States Forest Service. It contains a number of independently managed telescopes, and runs nightly observation programmes and workshops for the public.

Where it is

Mount Lemmon Observatory is a observatory near Santa Catalina Mountains, in Pima County. It is one of the observatories in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Mount Lemmon Observatory, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Mentioned in

• Arizona protects its night sky in one set of places and uses it in another — Eight Arizona attractions hold International Dark Sky Park status and all eight publish visitor counts; twelve working observatories publish none.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikivoyage(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
• Official site: http://skycenter.arizona.edu/(opens in a new tab)

Record last verified 2026-08-12.