Mauna Kea Observatory - Vistas Photo Gallery
©2011 by Fred Espenak. All rights reserved.
Mauna Kea Observatory (MKO) is located near the 4205m (13,800ft) summit of Mauna Kea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. Recognized as one of the world's premier astronomical research facilities, MKO is actually an international collection of independent observatories. Established in 1967, MKO is managed by the University of Hawaii which also operates several of the telescopes. Hawaii's isolation in the mid-Pacific Ocean and the high elevation of Mauna Kea makes it one of the best locations on Earth for ground-based astronomy. The heavens are studies in the submillimeter, infrared and optical wavelengths with telescopes designed specifically for each of these spectral regions.
There are a dozen telescopes near the summit of Mauna Kea:
- Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), 10.4m: Caltech
- Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), 3.6m: Canada, France, U. of Hawaii
- Gemini North Telescope, 8.1m: USA, UK, Canada, Chile, Australia, Argentina, Brazil
- NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), 3.0m: NASA (USA)
- James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), 15m: UK, Canada, Netherlands
- Subaru Telescope, 8.3m: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
- Sub-Millimeter Array (SMA), 8x6m: Taiwan, SAO/USA
- United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), 3.8m: UK
- U. of Hawaii 88-inch telescope (UH88), 2.2m: U. of Hawaii
- U. of Hawaii 24-inch telescope (UH24), 0.6m: U. of Hawaii at Hilo
- One receiver of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), 25m: USA
- W. M. Keck Observatory, 2x10m: Caltech/U. of California, USA
For additional information on Mauna Kea Observatory, see the official MKO web site.
The following photo gallery presents a collection of images of Mauna Kea Observatory.
Click on each thumbnail to see a larger image.
