Saturday – April 4, 2015
Kitt Peak National Observatory
Tucson, Arizona
We visited the Kitt Peak National Observatory today. It is located on Kitt Peak Mountain at an elevation of 6,875 feet, 56 miles southwest of Tucson, AZ, on the Tohono O'odham Nation Reservation. Kitt Peak was selected in 1957 as the location of the first national astronomical observatory.
The world’s largest collection of optical telescopes is located high above the Sonoran Desert under some of the finest night skies in the world. Kitt Peak is home to twenty-five optical and two radio telescopes and offers astronomers some of the finest observing to be found in the world.
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. Sharing the mountaintop site with the National Solar Observatory, KPNO, founded in 1958, operates three major nighttime telescopes and hosts the facilities of consortia which operate 22 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes.
The self-guided tour we took provided us with close up views of:
- McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope
- 2.1 Meter Optical Telescope
- 4 Meter Optical Mayall Telescope
Tomorrow another adventure begins.
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