Object Details
- Summary
- This is a metal scale model of a modern ground based reflecting telescope: the model has a 5-inch primary and a smaller set of secondary mirrors on a rotating frame. The overall design and many details of this model quite closely follow those of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories NOAO 4-meter Mayall reflector located at Kitt Peak. The original Mayall utilizes a split-ring equatorial suspension design and was built in the early 1970's, seeing first light in February 1973. It has a twin at NOAO's Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile. It was one of the first of the 4-meter class telescopes and the last of the large series to utilize equatorial mountings. During the 1960s it was the largest telescope in the world available by peer-reviewed proposal without institutional priority.
- Originally a photographic, photoelectric and spectroscopic instrument with several foci, the Mayall currently uses a 6 megapixel CCD camera for observing infrared and faint visible light from distant objects. This model was transferred to NASM from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in 1974; it is now on display in the "Explore the Universe" gallery.
- Credit Line
- Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Inventory Number
- A19800398000
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Type
- MODELS-Miscellaneous
- Materials
- Metal
- Dimensions
- 3-D: 34.5 × 53 × 62cm (13 9/16 × 20 7/8 × 24 7/16 in.)
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A19800398000
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv95ff2078f-90c4-44a8-9afb-81c59aad9afa
