Magellan Telescopes

Magellan Telescopes
Named after Walter Baade, Landon T. Clay Edit this on Wikidata
Observatory Las Campanas Observatory Edit this on Wikidata
Location(s) Chile Edit this at Wikidata
Coordinates 29°00′54″S 70°41′30″W / 29.015°S 70.6917°W / -29.015; -70.6917Coordinates: 29°00′54″S 70°41′30″W / 29.015°S 70.6917°W / -29.015; -70.6917 Edit this at Wikidata
Organization Carnegie Institution for Science Edit this on Wikidata
Altitude 2,516 m (8,255 ft) Edit this at Wikidata
First light 15 September 2000, 7 September 2002 Edit this on Wikidata
Telescope style Gregorian telescope
Optical telescope Edit this on Wikidata
Number of telescopes 2 Edit this on Wikidata
Diameter 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in) Edit this at Wikidata
Location of Magellan Telescopes
Comparison of nominal sizes of apertures of the Magellan Telescopes and some notable optical telescopes

The Magellan Telescopes are a pair of 6.5-metre-diameter (21 ft) optical telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The two telescopes are named after the astronomer Walter Baade and the philanthropist Landon T. Clay.

First light for the telescopes was on September 15, 2000 for the Baade, and September 7, 2002 for the Clay.

A consortium consisting of the Carnegie Institution for Science, University of Arizona, Harvard University, the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology built and operate the twin telescopes.

The telescopes were named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.

Current instruments on the Magellan Telescopes

Baade telescope:

  • Inamori Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph (IMACS)
  • FourStar
  • Folded port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE)
  • Magellan Echellete (MagE)

Clay telescope:

  • Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) spectrograph
  • Low-Dispersion Survey Spectrograph-3 (LDSS-3)
  • Megacam imager
  • MagAO

Magellan Planet Search Program

Is a survey of start searching for planets using the MIKE echelle spectrograph mounted on the 6.5 m Magellan II (Clay) telescope.[1][2]

MagAO Adaptive Optics System

In 2013, Clay (Magellan II) was equipped with an adaptive secondary mirror called MagAO which allowed it to take the sharpest visible-light images to date, capable of resolving objects 0.02 arcseconds across—equivalent to a dime (1.8 cm) seen from 100 miles (160 km) away.[3]

MagAO was originally intended for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), but the secondary mirror was damaged before it could be installed. The project leader Laird Close and his team were able to repair and repurpose the broken mirror for use on Magellan II. As built for the LBT, the original MagAO mirror had an diameter of 36 inches (0.91 m). However, the edge of the mirror was broken. Technicians at Steward Observatory were able to cut the mirror to 33.5 inches (0.85 m) in diameter, thereby removing the broken edge.[4]

Photos

See also

References

  1. ↑ Low Mass Companions for Five Solar-Type Stars from the Magellan Planet Search Program, Dante Minniti et.al, 2008.
  2. ↑ Five Long-period Extrasolar Planets in Eccentric orbits from the Magellan Planet Search Program Archived 2012-07-11 at Archive.is, Pamela Arriagada, et.al, 2010.
  3. ↑ New Telescope Tech Takes Sharpest Night Sky Photos Ever, Mike Wall, 2013.
  4. ↑ University of Arizona astronomers see more clearly than ever, Tom Beal, 2013.


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