Harquahala Peak Observatory

The Harquahala Peak Observatory, at elevation 5,680 feet (1, 730 m) on Harquahala Peak near Wenden, Arizona, United States, is an adobe two-story building built with wooden beams, but it appears fragile due to it being covered with corrugated tin roof and siding. It has a wooden second-story porch. A "cement water catchment device" is on its northern end. The much-deteriorated observatory, along with 10 acres (4.0 ha), was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. A small storage shed was a second contributing building in the listing. The two buildings were built in 1920 by the Smithsonian Institution. Scientists staffed the observatory from 1920 to 1925. The location "was picked because of its remoteness from pollution, and for the region's high percentage of cloudless days. Solar observations began on October 3, 1920, and for five years, measurements of the solar constant were taken at the site. The equipment used was a pyroheliometer perhaps an alternate name for Pyrheliometer, an early device used to measure the Sun's energy output in ergs per second per square centimetre. The solar constant measurement, which has since been abandoned as a method, was used to determine the effect of the Sun's energy output on the Earth's climate. Although results concerning weather forecasting were inconclusive, the five year study, using data from both Harquahala Peak and

Observatory data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).