The Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) is located on Mount Whipple in Arizona. Since October 1968, the FLWO has been used as the site for experiments requiring extremely dark skies, dry climate, and good "optical seeing." The facilities at the FLWO include: 

• The 6.5-meter MMT (256-inch) , a joint facility operated with the University of Arizona, for solar system, galactic and extragalactic astronomy.

• The 1.5-meter Tillinghast (60-inch) and 1.2-meter (48-inch) reflector telescopes, for solar system, galactic and extragalactic astronomy.

• The 1.3-meter (51-inch) PAIRITEL (Peters Automated IR Imaging Telescope; ex-2MASS) reflector, for infrared observations, especially of gamma-ray burst afterglows, supernovae and other variable sources, is now decommissioned.

• The 10-meter reflector for gamma-ray astronomy in the 100GeV-10TeV energy range is now decommissioned.

• VERITAS, an array of four 12-meter reflectors for gamma-ray astronomy in the 50GeV-50TeV energy range.

• The HAT (Hungarian-made Automated Telescope) network of optical refractor telescopes, used for robotic searches for variable stars and exoplanets.

• The MEarth array of eight 40-cm optical reflector telescopes, used for robotic searches for exoplanets.

 

A downloadable visitor guide will be available soon!