David Mittelman was inspired by “awe and sense of wonder of the stars above us” and he selected this site in New Mexico for his observatory so that “both present and future generations can enjoy the wonders and humility sparked by the skies above…” as “much of our future lies with decoding and understanding the mysteries of our universe”. Its astronomical activities excel because of its beautifully dark, high altitude location.
David Mittelman was an accomplished amateur astronomer with an extensive collection of exceptional images that he produced.
Located at a beautifully dark, high altitude site in New Mexico, the David Mittelman Observatory opens up the Northern hemisphere to the Global Jet Watch enabling us to develop our research programmes in parts of the sky that were previously hard to monitor as well as we can in the Southern Hemisphere.
David Mittelman, Dennis di Cicco and Sean Walker had a bold vision to observe the whole sky through light emitted by the hydrogen gas in the Universe. Their vision is being fulfilled as the MDW Survey (https://www.mdwskysurvey.org/). The survey began with Astrophysics refractor telescopes at the New Mexico observatory, and the vast majority of the northern sky is complete.
The telescopes were relocated to Chile where they are currently making excellent progress through the southern sky. This MDW website at Columbia University (https://mdw.astro.columbia.edu/) is where data releases and further information may be found. Shown here is just one example of an MDW image: this is the beautiful Large Magellanic Cloud by Sean Walker and Dennis di Cicco.
Publications that have used data obtained at the David Mittelman Observatory include: