Steward Observatory

Steward Observatory The observatory of the University of Arizona, founded at Tucson in 1922 and named after Lavinia Steward, its benefactor. It currently operates telescopes at five main sites in Arizona. Steward Observatory's site on Kitt Peak, at an altitude of 2070 m, was founded in 1963. It has three telescopes: the 2.3-m Bok reflector opened in 1969, named after former Steward Observatory director B. J.Bok; a 0.9-m reflector opened in Tucson in 1922 and moved to Kitt Peak in 1963; and a 1.8-m, opened in 2000; these latter two telescopes are used in the Spacewatch project. Also on Kitt Peak, Steward Observatory operates a 12-m millimetre-wave dish, on loan from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory; this dish was opened in 1967 and upgraded in 1984, and transferred to Steward Observatory in 2000. Steward Observatory's Mount Lemmon Station in the Santa Catalina Mountains, altitude 2780 m, lies 38 km northeast of Tucson. Here, Steward Observatory operates a 1.5-m and a 1-m reflector, both opened in 1970; the University of Minnesota operates a 1.5-m reflector at the same site, also opened 1970. At the Mount Bigelow Station in the Santa Catalina Mountains, altitude 2510 m, Steward Observatory operates the 1.55-m Kuiper Telescope, opened in 1965, and a 0.68-m Schmidt, opened 1965 and upgraded in 2003. Steward Observatory jointly owns and operates the MMT Observatory on Mount Hopkins; it also owns and operates the Mount Graham International Observatory and is a partner in the Magellan Telescopes. http://www.as.arizona.edu/