Ski Resort Building First Observatory At Top Of Ski Mountain in US
Ski Resort Building First Observatory At Top Of Ski Mountain in US
Published : 28-Aug-2022 08:54
Snow King ski resort at Jackson in Wyoming is building an observatory at the top of its lifts.
It's believed it will be the first observatory located on top of a ski resort in North America.
The observatory will feature a seven metre (24-foot) AstroHaven dome along housing a one-metre PlaneWave telescope, one of the largest in the world.
The eight-metre digital planetarium will have a capacity of 30 people and include a classroom/theatre space, galleries with interactive exhibits and event space.
Construction of the new planetarium and observatory is well underway and the facility is expected to be completed by early autumn next year. It will be dedicated to public outreach.
Although it's thought to be the first observatory built at the top of a ski lift in the US, other observatories exist at other ski areas, although in most cases the observatory and lift to it came first, then skiers realised they could use the observatory's access lift to make descents.
That's the case for the famous off piste routes from the Pic du Midi observatory in the French Pyrenees.
In the late 1960s two astronomical observatories were installed in the two towers of the Kulmhotel Gornergrat, (3,120 m /10,240 ft) up at the top of the Gornergrat rack railway above the Swiss resort of Zermatt.
In the US there's also unofficial skiing and boarding, but no lifts, from the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, one of the world's most important observatories.
Snow King is located on the edge of the City of Jackson in Wyoming and was actually the first resort to open in the state, back in 1939. The world-famous ski resort of Jackson Hole is a separate, more recent creation, located about 10 miles from the city.
The observatory and planetarium are the latest in a string of infrastructure improvements at Snow King over the past few years. A new gondola was installed ahead of last season, which also saw terrain added and a new triple chairlift. The resort also now operates the steepest Zip Line in all of North America which opened in May of this year
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