Fresno State students Dave Reynolds and John Prigge walk up to the 2.1-m (84-inch) telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Look at the Moon!
The 2.1-m telescope at Kitt Peak National
Observatory was built in 1962. A comparable instrument would cost $5 million
today.
Fresno State student Dave Reynolds is briefed
on operating the 2.1-m telescope by KPNO staff associate Bill Gillespie.
Fresno State student Dave Reynolds waves from
the path to Kitt Peak National Observatory's 2.1-m telescope, with other
telescopes in the background.
Fresno State student Dave Reynolds stands
under the National Solar Observatory's McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, the
largest solar telescope in the world.
Baboquivari Peak, here seen from Kitt Peak,
is regarded as the center of the Universe by the Tohono O'odham tribe who
live nearby. It is fitting that it is on a direct line of sight to the
national observatory.
This is another view of the 2.1-m telescope.
At the right is the 0.9-m Coudé Feed Telescope, used to gather
starlight for the coude spectrograph in the 2.1-m dome, when the 2.1-m
telescope is being used with another instrument.
This is a close-up of the coudé feed,
behind the 2.1-m telescope dome.
The 1.2-m Calypso telescope, on Kitt Peak,
was privately built by Edgar Smith, an amateur astronomer interested in
high-resolution imaging of globular clusters. The last time a wealthy
amateur used a comparable amount of his own money to build a
state-of-the-art telescope primarily for science observations he intended to
do himself was Percival Lowell, in 1894.
Kitt Peak in early afternoon, from the catwalk
of the 2.1-m telescope
Kitt Peak in late afternoon, from the catwalk
of the 2.1-m telescope
The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope is seen
from the catwalk of the 2.1-m telescope. Behind it is the National Solar
Observatory's Solar Vacuum Telescope: the poles around it are lightning
rods.