Organisation NOAO Altitude 2,120 m (6,960 ft) Built Completed 1973 Collecting area 11.4 m² | Location(s) Arizona, USA Wavelength optical Telescope style reflector | |
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Organization National Optical Astronomy Observatory | ||
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. Initial observers included: D. Crawford, Nicholas Mayall, and Arthur Hoag. It was dedicated on June 20, 1973 after Mayall's retirement as director. 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.
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: