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| Hobby - Eberly Telescope
With an 11.1 x 9.8 meter primary mirror and a 9.2 meter effective aperature, this is the world's third largest optical telescope, which gathers a large amount of light specifically for spectroscopy. One of the McDonald Observatory's best. |
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| McDonald Observatory is located in the Davis Mountains, 450 miles west of Austin, Texas. The Observatory is equipped with a wide range of state-of-the-art instrumentation for imaging and spectroscopy in the optical and infrared, and operates one of the first and most productive lunar ranging stations. Currently, McDonald operates four research telescopes at the West Texas site: |
| 9.2m Hobby-Eberly Telescope
2.7m Harlan J. Smith Telescope 2.1m Otto Struve Telescope 0.8m Telescope |
| The McDonald Observatory hosts a daily radio program called "Stardate." Listen to the radio program or read it for observing times for sky events and tips on observing and general astronomy. |
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| Founded in December 1904 by George Ellery Hale as one of the original scientific enterprises of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mt. Wilson Observatory is completing its first century as one of the world's premier astronomical observatories. |
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| The Night Sky Live |
| It's EXACTLY THAT! View the night sky in real-time through fish-eye lens cameras piggy-back mounted aboard telescopes in major observatories world-wide 24 hours a day! |
| Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), supports the most diverse collection of astronomical observatories on Earth for nighttime optical and infrared astronomy and daytime study of the Sun. Founded in 1958, KPNO operates three major nighttime telescopes, shares site responsibilities with the National Solar Observatory and hosts the facilities of consortia which operate 19 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes. (See the Tenant Observatories list.) Kitt Peak is located 56 miles southwest of Tucson, AZ, and has a Visitor Center open daily to the public. |
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| BBSO - Big Bear Solar Observatory |
| Built by the California Institute of Technology in 1969, BBSO is actually located in the middle of Big Bear Lake to reduce image distortion created by convection of land air. |
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| This page last uptated 12-06-08 |
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| This entire website was built for FREE using |
| Background image courtesy of and Copyright J. Weaver 1999 |