Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope
 | |
| Alternative names | Mayall 4-meter Telescope |
|---|---|
| Part of | Kitt Peak National Observatory  |
| Location(s) | Arizona |
| Coordinates | 31°57′48″N 111°36′01″W / 31.9634°N 111.6003°W |
| Organization | NOAO |
| Altitude | 2,120 m (6,960 ft) |
| Wavelength | optical |
| Built | Completed 1973 |
| Telescope style | reflector |
| Collecting area | 11.4 m2 |
| Website | The Mayall 4-Meter Telescope |
  Location of Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope | |
 Related media on Commons | |
The Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope, also known as the Mayall 4-meter 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]
Contemporaries on commissioning
The Mayall (4 m) debuted neatly between the Hale (5 m) and Shane (3 m) 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 |
|
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 |
Gallery
 |
See also
References
- ^ a b c Lindsley, Dave; Edmondson, Frank; Kiani, Shiva (2008), Celebrating 50 years; Kitt Peak National Observatory; Milestones at Kitt Peak (PDF)
- ^ Robert D. Chapman; William M. Sinton. "Telescope". AccessScience@McGraw-Hill. doi:10.1036/1097-8542.681600.
External links
Media related to Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Wikimedia Commons- The Mayall 4-meter Telescope - official site.
| This article about a specific observatory, telescope or astronomical instrument is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |