WIYN Telescope on Kitt Peak

KPNO is a division of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation

The WIYN 3.5-m Telescope, dedicated in 1994, was built by a consortium of the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Yale University, and NOAO. The design of the telescope incorporates a spin-cast borosilicate primary mirror produced at the University of Arizona's Mirror Laboratory and equipped with active mirror supports and thermal controls. The small, lightweight enclosure is well ventilated to follow nighttime ambient temperature, routinely producing sub-arc second image quality.

NOAO receives 40% of the time on the WIYN Telescope to distribute to the U.S. astronomical community on the basis of peer-reviewed telescope proposals. Observations are obtained in a queue-scheduled mode by dedicated and professional observers. The WIYN Telescope is already credited with important work in the area of supernovae in distant galaxies, in understanding the origin of gamma ray bursts, and in the evolution of stars in clusters.

WIYN building

WIYN telescope

Image Caption: The image above is a WIYN image of the cluster of galaxies Abell 98 (redshift = 0.198). This image was acquired by M. Pierce and R. Tripoli of Indiana University as part of a photometric and spectroscopic survey of intemediate-redshift clusters. The goal of this research is to characterize the expansion of the universe over these distances. This image (a composite of R and I-band images) spans 7 by 14 arcmin and has a Full-Width-Halh-Maximum (FWHM) resolution of only 0.4 arcsec. Almost all of the objects visible in this image are galaxies.

webmaster@noao.edu Last updated: 10Aug1998

NOAO Copyright State ment