Optical Observatories
Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Paredes
Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek (Institute of Physics in Opava)
- Cerro Tololo & Cerro Pachón Inter-American Observatory (CTIO)
- Vera C. Rubin Observatory – El Penon, Cerro Pachón, Chile – 8.4 m Simonyi Survey Telescope
- Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope – Cerro Tololo, Chile – 4 m – near twin of the Kitt Peak Mayall reflector
- Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) – Cerro Pachón, Chile – 4.1 m reflector
- SMARTS Consortium – Planetary Defense 1.3-meter Telescope – Cerro Tololo, Chile – monitors southern hemisphere near earth asteroids
- David Dunlap Observatory – Richmond Hill, ON, Canada – 74″ reflector – largest in Canada
- European Southern Observatory (ESO)
- Very Large Telescope (VLT) – Cerro Paranal, Chile – four Unit Telescopes with 8.2m diameter main mirrors and four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes
- ESO 3.6-metre telescope – La Silla Observatory, Chile – the world’s foremost exoplanet hunter – most successful finder of low-mass exoplanets
- New Technology Telescope (NTT) – La Silla Observatory, Chile – 3.58m flexible mirror Ritchey-Chrétien reflector
- Kitt Peak National Observatory – 4 m Mayall & 3.5 m WIYN telescopes, McMath–Pierce 1.6 m f/54 reflecting solar telescope
- Lick Observatory – 120″ Shane & 36″ Crossley reflectors, twin 20″ Carnegie double astrograph, and 36″ Lick refractor
- Lowell Observatory – 169″, 72″, 42″, 25″, 24″ & 21″ reflectors, an Alvan Clark 24″ refractor, and the 13″ Pluto discovery astrograph
- Mauanakea Observatories – Mauana Kea Volcano, Big Island of Hawai’i, HI, USA
- Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope – 3.6 m optical/infrared telescope
- Gemini Observatory – twin 8.1 m (26.6 ft) Cassegrain telescopes in Hawaii (Gemini North) and Chile (Gemini South)
- James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) – 15 m (50 ft) dish observing at wavelengths between 1.4 and 0.4 mm
- Keck Observatory – twin 10 m f/1.75 mirror telescopes
- NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) – 3.2 m infrared telescope – 50% of IRTF observing time is reserved for studies of solar system objects
- Subaru Telescope – 8.2 m Ritchey–Chrétien reflector
- McDonald Observatory – 10 m Hobby-Ebberly, 2.7 m (107″) Harlan J. Smith, & 2.1 m (82″) Otto Struve reflectors
- Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) – 100″ (2.5 m) Hooker, 60″ Hale (1.5 m), and 60-foot & 150-foot tower solar telescopes
- Palomar Observatory – Mt. Palomar, CA – 200″ Hale & 60″ reflectors, and 48″ Oschin Schmidt Camera
- Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM) – La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
- Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) – 10.4 m (410 in) reflector with 36 hexagonal segments
- William Herschel Telescope (WHT) – 4.2m – discovered the first evidence of a supermassive black hole (Sgr A*) at the center of the Milky Way
- Issac Newton Telescope (INT) – 2.54m – moved from Royal Greenwich Observatory, Herstmonceux in 1984
- Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) – 3.58m – the largest Italian optical/infrared telescope
- Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) – 2.56m optical/IR telescope
- Royal Observatory, Greenwich – London, England – 28″ Grubb refractor & various other historical displays
- Steward Observatory – Univ. of Arizona
- Large Binocular Telescope Observatory – two 8.4 m (331 in) diameter primary mirrors
- MMT Observatory – Mt. Hopkins, AZ – 6.5 m mirror – spincast at the Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory
- Yerkes Observatory – 40″ (102cm) Alvan Clark refractor (largest functional refractor), 40″ Ritchey–Chrétien reflector, & 24″ reflector
Radio Observatories
Credit: Bettymaya Foott, NRAO/AUI/NSF
- Australia Telescope National Facility – various sites
- Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder – ASKAP – Murchison, Western Australia – thirty-six 12 m antenna array
- Parkes Observatory – Parkes, NSW, AUS – 64 m dish
- Radio Telescope Effelsberg – 53902 Bad Münstereifel, Germany – 100 m fully steerable dish
- Jodrell Bank – Cheshire, UK – Premier UK radio observatory – administrative home of square kilometer array (SKA)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory – USA
- Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) – Atacama Desert, Chile – fifty-four 12 m and twelve 7 m dish antennas – more info on the ESO ALMA site
- Green Bank Observatory – Green Bank, WVa, USA – home of 100 m, 20 m, and 140 ft (43 m) telescopes
- Very Large Array – Agustin Plain, NM, USA – twenty-eight 82 ft dish antennas
- South African MeerKAT radio telescope – Carnarvon, SA – part of SKA – sixty-four 13.5 m interlinked receptors (antenna, reflector, receiver, digitizers)
Gravitational Wave Observatories
Courtesy Caltech/MIT/LIGO Laboratory
Courtesy Caltech/MIT/LIGO Laboratory
- Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) – Hida, Gifu Prefecture, Japan – 3 km arm length Michelson interferometer
- Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) – Hanford, WA & Livingston, LA, USA – two 4 km arm length Michelson interferometers
- Virgo – Santo Stefano a Macerata, Cascina, Italy – 3 km arm length Michelson interferometer