Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope
| Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope | |
Mayall on March 2, 1973 viewing through the telescope to be named in his honor.
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| Organization | NOAO |
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| Coordinates | 31°57′48″N 111°36′01″W / 31.9634°N 111.6003°WCoordinates: 31°57′48″N 111°36′01″W / 31.9634°N 111.6003°W |
| Altitude | 2120 m |
| Wavelength | optical |
| Built | Completed 1973 |
| Telescope style | reflector |
| Collecting area | 11.4m2 |
| Website | The Mayall 4-Meter Telescope |
The Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope (also known as the Mayall 4m Telescope) is a four meter reflector telescope located at the Kitt Peak National Observatory and named after Nicholas U. Mayall. It saw first light on February 27, 1973.[1] Initial observers included: D. Crawford, Nicholas Mayall, and Arthur Hoag.[1] It was dedicated on June 20, 1973 after Mayall's retirement as director.[1] The mirror has an f/2.7 hyperboloidal shape. It is made from a two foot (61 cm (24 in)) thick fused quartz disk that is supported in an advanced-design mirror cell. The prime focus has a field of view six times larger than that of the Hale reflector. An identical reflector was later built at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, in Chile.[2]
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[edit] Contemporaries on commissioning
The Mayall (4 m) debuted neatly between the Hale (5 m) and Shane (3m) in the early 1970s.
Largest telescopes 1973:
| # | Name / Observatory |
Image | Aperture | Altitude | First Light |
Special advocate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hale Telescope Palomar Obs. |
 |
200 inch 508 cm |
1713 m (5620 ft) |
1949 | George Ellery Hale |
| 2 | Mayall Telescope Kitt Peak National Obs. |
 |
158 inch 401 cm |
2120 m (6955 ft) |
1973 | Nicholas Mayall |
| 3 | Shane Telescope Lick Observatory |
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120 inch 305 cm |
1283 m (4209 ft) |
1959 | Nicholas Mayall C. Donald Shane |
| 4 | Harlan J. Smith Telescope McDonald Observatory |
 |
107 in 270 cm |
2070 m (6791 ft) |
1968 | Harlan J. Smith |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Lindsley, Dave; Edmondson, Frank; Kiani, Shiva (2008), Celebrating 50 years; Kitt Peak National Observatory; Milestones at Kitt Peak, http://www.noao.edu/kp50/files/Timeline.pdf
- ^ Robert D. Chapman, William M. Sinton. "Telescope". AccessScience@McGraw-Hill. doi:10.1036/1097-8542.681600. http://www.accessscience.com/content.aspx?searchStr=Mayall&id=681600.
[edit] External links
- The Mayall 4m Telescope - official site.
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