Telescopes I've Used (and what I've done with them)
I admit it - I'm a telescope junkie. Backyard, mountaintop, optical, infrared,
orbiting, any flavor. I do have the good fortune to be in a
profession that doesn't consider this too much of an aberration. To show
what kinds of projects can be done with various instruments (at least
the kinds I've thought of), here's a gallery of observatories and telescopes I've used with some sample data and results. Since astrophysics
now has (and needs) access to much of the electromagnetic spectrum, there
are optical, infrared, radio, ultraviolet, and X-ray facilities to be found.
For each picture, a click will get you the full-sized version. There is a
mix of pictures of and data through each telescope. Where one
exists, I've included links to the "official" WWW sites for
these instruments; some
USGS overhead images are included here. Some images
are still to be added.
About the picture above: this 30-second exposure taken on 20 December 1999
shows a brilliant
flare (visual magnitude about -6) from the Iridium 62 satellite seen over
Kitt Peak, as viewed from MDM Observatory.
Lyra is rising in the background with Vega at left. More information
on Iridium flares (and other satellite viewing opportunities) may
be found at the Heavens-Above site,
especially now that the future of the
Iridium communications constellation is in less doubt than before.
Nashville - my back yard, Dyer Observatory
Lick Observatory - Crossley, Nickel 1m, Shane 3m, 0.5m astrographic telescopes
Mount Lemmon - 1.5m UCSD-UM telescope
Kitt Peak - 0.9m, 1.3m, 2.1m, 4m Mayall, WIYN telescopes
Lowell Observatory - 42" telescope
La Palma - JKT, INT, WHT, NOT
Bol'shoi Teleskop Azimutal'nyi, North Caucasus
Cerro Tololo - 1.5m, 4m Blanco telescopes
European Southern Observatory, La Silla - 2.2m, 3.6m telescopes
NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, Mauna Kea
MMT, Mt. Hopkins, Arizona
MDM Observatory - 2.4m Hiltner telescope
Palomar Mountain, California - 5-m Hale
telescope, Schmidt telescope, 1.5m telescope
SARA Observatory, Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo - 1m and 0.6m telescopes
ARC 3.5m telescope, Apache Point Observatory, New Mexico
Gemini Observatory, Mauna Kea and Cerro Pachon
UA's 16-inch reflector and its predecessor, the 10-inch refractor, in Tuscaloosa
NRAO: Very Large Array, 43m telescope
James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, Mauna Kea
Low Earth orbit - Hubble Space Telescope,
ROSAT, IRAS,
STS-95 Starlite, FUSE, GALEX, Swift, Suzaku
High Earth orbit - ISO,
Chandra, XMM-Newton
Geosynchronous orbit - IUE
Solar escape orbit - Voyager 2
In addition, I've got "tourist" pictures of some other instruments that
I haven't used for research, either because I haven't got an original use for
them or their operators have too much sense to let me on. Some are
hidden with their neighbors in the list above, and more at
additional sites are:
Appalachian State University - student observatory, and 0.8m and 0.45m telescopes at dark-sky site
Berlin: the Archenbold Observatory at Treptow Park
Bonn: Argelander's survey telescope
Butler University, Indianapolis - Holcomb
Observatory, 1-meter telescope
Byurakan: 1m Schmidt and 2.6m telescopes
Cerro Pachon, Chile - Panorama with Cerro Tololo, panorama to south, 4.2m
SOAR telescope and
dome, 8m Gemini-S
telescope, instruments,
dome
Cincinnati Observatory - main dome, north dome, 30-cm refractor from 1845 (also with Venus and Jupiter), 40-cm Clark refractor
Dover Heights, Australia - Seacliff interferometer (reconstructed on original base, visited 2013)
Dwingeloo 25m radio telescope
East Tennessee State University - observatory, 14" telescope and polarimeter
Effelsberg 100m radio telescope
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida - 1m DFM telescope, dome
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida - 0.8m Ortega telescope
Greenwich, Royal Observatory -
70-cm refractor and its onion dome.
Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles -
30-cm Zeiss refractor,
astronomers' monument
Goettingen - Sternwarte
Hat Creek Radio Observatory, University of California
Jodrell Bank
Kapteyn Sterrenwacht Werkgroep, Roden, the Netherlands
Kingsport, Tennessee - Bays Mountain Observatory, 8" refractor
Kirkwood Observatory, Indiana University, Bloomington
Kuiper Airborne Observatory
Las Campanas: a distant view
Leander McCormick Observatory
Leiden: the old Sterrewacht
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge - Landolt Observatory, 11-inch Clark refractor
Lowell Observatory - 4.3m Discovery Channel Telescope (instruments,
site)
Lowrey Observatory, Fort Davis, Texas - Barbarella, the 1.2m Dobsonian
Mauna Kea: Keck, UKIRT, UH, Subaru,CFHT
McDonald Observatory - 107" including bullet holes, Hobby-Eberly Telescope
Mississipi State University, Starkville, Mississipi - Howell Observatory, C-14 telescope
Mt. Bigelow - LPL 1.54-meter telescope
Mt. Hopkins: APTs, 60", Cerenkov high-energy array
Mt. Wilson: 60", and 100" Hooker telescopes, solar tower
NRAO: Green Bank, Kitt Peak, VLBA
Owens Valley Radio Observatory - 40-meter telescope
Oxford University: Original Radcliffe Observatory building, associated former observatory dome
Observatorio Astronomico Nacional,
Tonantzintla, Mexico
Rainwater Observatory, French Camp,
Mississippi - 8-inch refractor in dome,
0.65m Sangre telescope and
dome
RATAN-600 radio telescope, North Caucasus
Sonnenborgh Sterrenwacht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak - 2.3m Bok telescope, Spacewatch 1.8-meter and 0.9-meter telescopes
Sydney Observatory -
29-cm Schroeder refractor,
contemporary 40-cm reflector
University of Cambridge Observatories:
30-cm Northumberland telescope
and dome by night, and
0.9m dome by night
University of Havana observatory
University of Mississippi, Kennon Observatory -
38-cm double refractor and its former
home in the Barnard Observatory
University of Montevallo, James Wylie Shepherd
Observatory - 0.5m PlaneWave telescope casting a
giant shadow
US Naval Observatory: Flagstaff and Washington
Valdosta State University, Georgia - Observatory,
DFM 0.4m telescope
von Braun Astronomical society, Huntsville, Alabama -
Observatory and planetarium building, Convertible-design Celestron 16-inch telescope, 0.5m telescope in dome
Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
Wyoming Infrared Observatory
Yerkes 40" refractor
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