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| Alternative names | Walter Baade Magellan 6.5-m telescope (LCO) |
|---|---|
| Location(s) | Atacama Region, Chile |
| Coordinates | 29°00′54″S70°41′30″W / 29.015°S 70.6917°W /-29.015; -70.6917 |
| Altitude | 2,516, 2,392 m (8,255, 7,848 ft) |
| Diameter | 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in) |
  Location of Magellan Telescopes | |
 Related media on Commons | |
TheMagellan Telescopes are a pair of 6.5-metre-diameter (21 ft) opticaltelescopes located atLas Campanas Observatory inChile. The two telescopes are named after the astronomerWalter Baade and thephilanthropistLandon 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 theCarnegie Institution for Science,University of Arizona,Harvard University, theUniversity of Michigan and theMassachusetts Institute of Technology built and operate the twin telescopes. The telescopes were named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorerFerdinand Magellan.
TheGiant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is anextremely large telescope under construction, as part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program.[1]
Baade telescope:
Clay telescope:
This program is a survey of stars searching for planets using the MIKE echelle spectrograph mounted on the 6.5 m Magellan II (Clay) telescope.[2][3]
In 2013, Clay (Magellan II) was equipped with anadaptive 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 adime (1.8 cm) seen from 100 miles (160 km) away.[4]
MagAO was originally intended for theLarge 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 a diameter of 36 inches (0.91 m). However, the edge of the mirror was broken. Technicians atSteward Observatory were able to cut the mirror to 33.5 inches (0.85 m) in diameter, thereby removing the broken edge.[5]
