Mount Hopkins (Arizona)

The MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) is a ground-based robotic dedicated exoplanet observatory. The facility is an array of small-aperture robotic telescopes outfitted for both photometry and high-resolution Doppler spectroscopy located at the U.S. Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona. The project's principal investigator is the American astronomer Jason Eastman. The telescopes were manufactured by PlaneWave Instruments.

The MMT Observatory (MMTO) is an astronomical observatory on the site of Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (IAU observatory code 696). The Whipple observatory complex is located on Mount Hopkins, Arizona, US (55 km south of Tucson) in the Santa Rita Mountains. The observatory is operated by the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Institution, and has a visitor center in nearby Amado, Arizona. The MMTO is the home of the MMT (formerly Multiple Mirror Telescope), which has a primary mirror 6.5 m in diameter. The name comes from the six smaller mirrors originally used before the single primary mirror was installed in 1998. The primary mirror has a special lightweight honeycomb design made by the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory. The MMT is housed in a building which allows the walls and roof around the telescope to be completely rolled back, allowing it to cool down very quickly in order to improve observation.

The Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) was a stellar interferometer array. IOTA began with an agreement in 1988 among five Institutions, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Wyoming, and MIT/Lincoln Laboratory, to build a two-telescope stellar interferometer for the purpose of making fundamental astrophysical observations, and also as a prototype instrument on which they could perfect techniques which could later lead to the development of a larger, more powerful array. On site construction went on for all 1993 and 1994, with first fringes in December 1993. It is located at Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory. In 2000 the third telescope came online providing closure phase observations, allowing aperture synthesis imaging to be performed for the first time at IOTA. The array was decommissioned and disassembled in summer 2006 due to lack of funding.

The Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory is an American astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO); it is their largest field installation outside of their main site in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is located near Amado, Arizona on the summit, a ridge and at the foot of Mount Hopkins. Research activities include imaging and spectroscopy of extragalactic, stellar, solar system and extra-solar bodies, as well as gamma-ray and cosmic-ray astronomy.

VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is a major ground-based gamma-ray observatory with an array of four 12 meter optical reflectors for gamma-ray astronomy in the GeV – TeV photon energy range. VERITAS uses the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope technique to observe gamma rays that cause particle showers in Earth's atmosphere that are known as extensive air showers. The VERITAS array is located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, in southern Arizona, United States. The VERITAS reflector design is similar to the earlier Whipple 10-meter gamma-ray telescope, located at the same site, but is larger in size and has a longer focal length for better control of optical aberrations. VERITAS consists of an array of imaging telescopes deployed to view atmospheric Cherenkov showers from multiple locations to give the highest sensitivity in the 100 GeV – 10 TeV band (with sensitivity from 50 GeV to up to 50 TeV). This very high energy observatory, completed in 2007, effectively complements the Large Area Telescope (LAT) of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope due to its larger collection area as well as coverage in a higher energy band.

Alto is a ghost town in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, first settled in the early 1900s in what was then part of the Tyndall Mining District, east of Tubac in the Santa Rita Mountains. The town was originally named El Plomo, which is Spanish for "lead", and was changed to Alto, meaning "high", many years later, probably because the mines were located high up on a steep mountainside.

Salero is a ghost town in the Santa Rita Mountains of Santa Cruz County, Arizona. As one of the best preserved ghost towns remaining in Arizona, Salero is located on private property of the Salero Ranch and is not open to visitors.

Onyx Cave is a solutional cave system with about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) of passages formed in Permian limestone in the Santa Rita Mountains of Arizona. It is part of the Coronado National Forest. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974.

Cave of the Bells is located in Sawmill Canyon on the eastern slopes of the Santa Rita Mountains of Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The cave contains a lake which is 80 meters below the entrance level. The lake has been measured at 76 °F (24 °C) and is believed to be warmed by sources below. Nearby Onyx Cave is also of interest.

Elephant Head is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pima County, Arizona, United States. The population was 612 at the 2010 census.

The Santa Rita Experimental Range and Wildlife Area is the longest continuously active rangeland research facility and among the five oldest biological field stations in the United States. Located south of Tucson in Pima County, Arizona, the 52,000 acre Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) was founded in 1903 and administered by the United States Forest Service until 1987, when the University of Arizona College of Agriculture took over administration of the site. The mission at the SRER is "to advance research and education on the ecology and management of desert rangelands through the secure, long-term access to research areas, state-of-the-art facilities, new discoveries, and research legacies."

Kentucky Camp is a ghost town and former mining camp along the Arizona Trail in Pima County, Arizona, United States, near the community of Sonoita. The Kentucky Camp Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been since 1995. As it is located within Coronado National Forest, the United States Forest Service is responsible for the upkeep of the remaining buildings within the Kentucky Camp Historic District.