| Fan Mountain Observatory | |
| Organization: | Astronomy Department, University of Virginia |
| Location: | Albemarle County, Virginia, United States |
| Coords: | 37.8782°N -78.693°W |
| Altitude: | 566 m (1857 ft) |
| Website: | https://astronomy.as.virginia.edu/research/observatories/fan-mountain |
| Telescope1 Name: | Fan Mountain Astrometric reflector |
| Telescope1 Type: | 40-inch reflector |
| Telescope2 Name: | Fan Mountain Infrared reflector |
| Telescope2 Type: | 31-inch reflector |
| Telescope3 Name: | Cooke astrograph |
| Telescope3 Type: | 10-inch astrograph |
For the mountains in Tajikistan, see the Fann Mountains.
Fan Mountain Observatory (or Fan Mountain Station of Leander McCormick Observatory), an observatory operated by the Astronomy Department of the University of Virginia in southern Albemarle County, Virginia. It was opened in 1966 with a 31inches Tinsley reflector, with a 40inches Baker-Schmidt astrometric reflector following in 1972, to extend the parallax work of the McCormick Observatory, which was suffering from light pollution from growing Charlottesville, Virginia by this time.
Today both telescopes have been outfitted with state-of-the-art instruments and are operated nightly by university students and faculty. The primary instruments for the 40inches telescope are a 2048x2048 SITe CCD for direct imaging and a fiber-fed visible wavelength spectrograph, FOBOS, for general spectroscopy and precision radial velocity measurement. The 31inches telescope supports a 1024x1024 HAWAII-1 based HgCdTe infrared camera operating between 0.8 and 2.5 μm. This camera is capable of direct imaging in an 8.5 x 8.5' (2.5 x 2.5 mrad) field with 0.5" (2.4 μrad) pixels as well as polarimetry and grism spectroscopy.
Fan Mountain observatory hosts a "public night" twice each year when eyepieces are placed on the two telescopes for general viewing. At other times, the facility is closed to the public, including the grounds and road up to the observatory.