Mcdonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near Fort Davis, Texas, United States. It is operated by the University of Texas at Austin. The observatory is part of the McDonald International Science Center.

The facility includes three telescopes: the Otto Struve Telescope, the Harlan J. Smith Telescope, and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). The 82 inch (2 meter) Struve telescope was built in 1939 and saw first light in 1947. It was named after American astronomer Otto Struve. The 107 inch (2.7 meter) Smith telescope was completed in 1968 and is used for spectroscopy. It is named after American astronomer Harlan J. Smith. The HET is a joint project of several universities and research institutions including UT-Austin, Pennsylvania State University, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; it began operations in 1997 with a 9 meter primary mirror making it one of the world’s largest optical/infrared telescopes