It is owned and operated by The Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy (MIRA).

The site was first publicized by Walker (1970)[1] and more fully characterized by Hutter et al. (1997)[2] as having sub-arcsecond astronomical seeing and a high number of photometric-quality nights per year.

It is well protected from light pollution to the south by the Ventana Wilderness inside the Los Padres National Forest and to the west by the Pacific Ocean.

The northern direction is impacted by light from the Monterey-Salinas complex and San Jose.

The east is moderately dark, due to the highly agriculturally-productive Salinas Valley but is slowly becoming more light polluted, especially in the area of Soledad.