Facilities | ast.noao.edu

The entire suite of telescopes owned, operated, or partnered in by U.S. institutions make up the U.S. System. Some of these are federal facilities, open to all proposers, and some have been developed with state or private funds, providing access exclusively to their own staffs. NOAO’s goal is to provide peer-reviewed access to a complete set of state-of-the-art capabilities on telescopes of all apertures. Some of these capabilities are found on NOAO’s own telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, some will be found on facilities such as Gemini, WIYN, and SOAR, which are partnerships that include NSF or NOAO, and some will be found on private facilities, to which NOAO attempts to provide limited access for the broad community.

NOAO also represents the community in new projects that are developing facilities that will enlarge and enhance the System.

Current facilities through NOAO:

Proposals for time on these facilities are solicited by NOAO every semester, with proposal due dates March 31 (for semester Aug 1 – Jan 31) and Sept 30 (for semester Feb 1 – July 31). The time available on NOAO’s own telescopes and the partner facilities are relatively constant from semester to semester.

NOAO operated facilities:

CTIO – Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, near La Serena Chile, is the site of the Blanco 4m telescope, the SOAR 4.1m telescope, the four small (<1.5m) SMARTS telescopes, and a number of tenant facilities.
KPNO – Kitt Peak National Observatory, near Tucson Arizona, is the site of the Mayall 4m telescope, the WIYN 3.5m telescope, the KPNO 2.1m telescope, and a number of tenant facilities.

NOAO partnership facilities:

Gemini – Gemini is an international consortium that operates two 8m telescopes, one on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, one on Cerro Pachon in Chile. The US (NSF) is a 50% partner, and time is available through NOAO. Through two exchange programs, the Gemini community also has access to a few nights of time with HIRES on Keck-I, as well as a few nights of time on the Subaru Telescope; this time is also available through NOAO.
SMARTS – The Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System is a consortium that operates 4 telescopes on Cerro Tololo, with apertures 1.5m, 1.3m, 1.0m, and 0.9m. Approximately 25% of the time on this suite of telescopes is available to the astronomical community through NOAO.
SOAR – The 4.1m Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope is located on Cerro Pachon, in Chile. 30% of the time on SOAR is available to the astronomical community through NOAO.
WIYN – The 3.5m Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO telescope is located on Kitt Peak in southern Arizona. 40% of the time on WIYN is available to the astronomical community through NOAO.

Other open-access facilities:

These facilities provide (or will provide) some access to the entire community. In those cases where that access is part of TSIP or the ReSTAR program, the time is available through the NOAO time allocation process.

CHARA – The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy is an interferometric array of six 1-meter telescopes on Mount Wilson in southern California.
Hale – The 5m Hale telescope is located at Palomar Observatory in southern California. Through a partnership agreement funded as part of the ReSTAR program, the community has access to approximately 10 nights per semester through NOAO.
IRTF – The NASA Infrared Telescope Facility is a 3.0 meter telescope optimized for infrared observations, and located at the summit of Mauna Kea, on the Big Island of Hawai'i.
Keck – The two 10m Keck telescopes are located on Mauna Kea, on the Big Island of Hawai'i. As a result of TSIP awards and the Gemini-Keck I/HIRES exchange, the community has access to a small number of nights through NOAO.
LBT – The Large Binocular Telescope is a telescope on Mount Graham in southern Arizona consisting of two 8.4m mirrors on a common mount. As a result of TSIP awards, the community has access to a small number of nights through NOAO.
Magellan – The two 6.5m Magellan telescopes sit atop Cerro Las Campanas in Chile. As a result of TSIP awards, the community has access to a small number of nights through NOAO.
MMT – The 6.5m MMT is located on Mount Hopkins, in southern Arizona. As a result of TSIP awards, the community has access to a small number of nights through NOAO.
Subaru – The 8.2m Subaru Telescope is located on Mauna Kea, on the Big Island of Hawai'i. As a result of the Gemini-Subaru exchange program, the community has access to a small number of nights through NOAO.

Other operating facilities (≥3m):

Listed here are other operating facilities, which currently do not provide open access to the community.

ARC - The Astrophysics Research Consortium 3.5m telescope is located at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. It is shared by a number of public and private universities.
CFHT - The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope is a 3.6m telescope on Mauna Kea. Observations are carried out primarily through queues, which allow observers to take advantage of the excellent image quality.
HET - The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is a fixed-elevation telescope at McDonald Observatory. It has an effective aperture of 9.2 meters, and several instruments for optical spectroscopy.
NPOI -The Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer on Anderson Mesa near Flagstaff is operated by the USNO Flagstaff Station in collaboration with the Naval Research Lab and the Lowell Observatory.

Future facilities:

NOAO tracks progress and explores collaborative relationships with all developing facilities that bring new, desirable capabilities to the System.