Pine Mountain Campground

Pine Mountain Observatory (PMO) is an astronomical observatory operated by the University of Oregon Department of Physics under a special use permit from the Deschutes National Forest. The facility is located 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Bend, Oregon (USA) near the summit of Pine Mountain.

PMO supports a wide variety of programs with an emphasis on projects that allow undergraduate students to be involved with many aspects of facility operations. PMO also has robust programs centered on K-12 education and public outreach.

The site was discovered and characterized by professors Russ Donnelly and E.G. Ebbinghausen in 1965 when they determined that the sky conditions were excellent and worthy of an observatory being built on Pine Mountain. The first telescope became operational in 1967.

Former programs gave high-school students the opportunity to not only observe at PMO, but also analyze data and prepare of a paper for publication. Early programs at PMO helped develop older software programs that allowed K-12 teachers to perform observations remotely and process the data for classroom use.

Past research projects included research on white dwarf stars and examining the large-scale structure of galaxies.