Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope

Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope
Organisation NOAO
Location(s) Arizona, USA
Coordinates 31°57′48″N 111°36′01″W / 31.9634°N 111.6003°W / 31.9634; -111.6003Coordinates: 31°57′48″N 111°36′01″W / 31.9634°N 111.6003°W / 31.9634; -111.6003
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
Kitt Peak—Mayall is the tall one

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
A man in his 60s looking into the eyepiece of a large telescope.
Mayall on March 2, 1973 viewing through the telescope to be named in his honor.
Looking out at Kitt Peak from Mayall

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lindsley, Dave; Edmondson, Frank; Kiani, Shiva (2008), Celebrating 50 years; Kitt Peak National Observatory; Milestones at Kitt Peak (PDF)
  2. ↑ Robert D. Chapman; William M. Sinton. "Telescope". AccessScience@McGraw-Hill. doi:10.1036/1097-8542.681600.


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