Kitt Peak National Observatory

Kitt Peak National Observatory
	Various telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in the Quinlan Mountains
Alternative names	KPNO
Organization	Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy ;
Observatory code	695
Location	Kitt Peak, Arizona, US
Coordinates	31°57′30″N 111°35′48″W
Altitude	2,096 m (6,877 ft)
Observing time	260 nights per year
Established	1958
Website	noirlab.edu/public/programs/kitt-peak-national-observatory/
Telescopes
KPNO Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope
KPNO Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope	4.0 m Ritchey–Chrétien reflector
WIYN Telescope	3.5 m Ritchey–Chrétien reflector
McMath–Pierce solar telescope	Unobstructed solar reflector
KPNO 2.1 m Telescope	Fourth largest on the mountain
Coudé Feed Tower	Coudé spectrograph
NEID Solar Telescope	Obtains disk-integrated light for a spectrograph
Coronado Array	Three commercially produced Meade/Coronado solar instruments used for public education
RCT Consortium Telescope	Robotically controlled
WIYN 0.9 m Telescope	Galactic studies
SOLARIO remote telescope	Astrophotography
CWRU Burrell Schmidt	Galactic studies
SARA Observatory 0.9m telescope	Variable stars, undergraduate training
Visitor Center telescopes	Three instruments used for nightly public programs
Spacewatch 1.8 m Telescope	72 in mirror scavenged from the Mount Hopkins MMT
Spacewatch 0.9 m Telescope	Spacewatch
Super-LOTIS	Designed to look for visible signatures of GRBs
Auxiliary solar telescopes	Two 0.9 m instruments
Bok Telescope	Versatile
MDM Observatory 1.3 m McGraw-Hill Telescope	Originally at Ann Arbor
MDM Observatory 2.4 m Hiltner Telescope	Galactic surveys
ARO 12m Radio Telescope	One of two telescopes operated by the Arizona Radio Observatory, part of Steward Observatory
VLBA	One of ten radio-telescopes forming the VLBA
DIMM all-sky camera	monitors seeing
	Location of Kitt Peak National Observatory
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The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, 88 kilometers (55 mi) west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than twenty optical and two radio telescopes, it is one of the largest gatherings of astronomical instruments in the Earth's northern hemisphere.

Kitt Peak National Observatory was founded in 1958. It is home to what was the largest solar telescope in the world, and many large astronomical telescopes of the late 20th century in the United States.

The observatory was administered by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) from the early 1980s until 2019, after which it was overseen by NOIRLab.

In June 2022, the Contreras Fire led to the evacuation of Kitt Peak. The fire reached the summit at 2 a.m. on Friday, June 17. Four non-scientific buildings, including a dormitory, were lost in the fire. As of Monday, June 20, the extent of damage to the telescopes is still being assessed.

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