annee25018 — Announcement

Observatory Visits: A Great Educational Resource

3 March 2025

Visits by students, teachers, and the general public are a relevant part of the outreach, engagement, and education work carried out by scientific observatories in their approach to sustainable relationships with local host communities. To that end, most of these facilities were conceived from the outset with spaces to receive visitors. Their purpose is to make the scientific work they perform, and the benefit it provides to technological development and the creation of knowledge, known to the public.

This is why all NSF NOIRLab facilities at our summits and bases offer public visits at some point during the week and/or month, throughout the calendar year. The NOIRLab Communications, Education and Engagement team that developed the procedure, logistics, and content of public visits to make sure that significant and understandable content is delivered, and that school-related physics topics are covered, such as gravity, the decomposition of light, the expansion of the Universe, and more. Most public visits are free, guided, and take place during the day. In the case of the Chilean facilities, the tours are also bilingual (Spanish and English). At Kitt Peak in Arizona we offer free field trips for school groups and paid day and nighttime tours for the public.

So, which of NOIRLab’s sites will you visit?

Hawai‘i

Gemini North Telescope — free guided tours every other Thursday, 10:30 a.m. HST.

One half of the International Gemini Observatory, the Gemini North telescope is situated near the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i. The site offers some of the most pristine views of the night sky, making it a popular spot for astronomers. In addition, Gemini North sits among a collection of other telescopes run by various international organizations.

Gemini Observatory is a world leader in adaptive optics, a technique that is used to compensate for errors in observations caused by Earth’s atmosphere. To do this, the telescopes direct laser beams at the sky and analyze the light that is reflected back to understand how the atmosphere is distorting it. The guided tours take place during the day, but if you look towards the mountain at night from Hilo, you might be able to see the impressive laser piercing the sky from a distance.

Kamaʻāina Observatory Experience (KOE) — free guided tours for Hawaiian residents every first Saturday of the month, 8:00 a.m. HST.

The KOE tours are organized by all the Maunakea telescopes and welcome Hawai‘i residents to its facilities on the first Saturday of every month, featuring a tour of a different telescope each time.

Gemini North Hilo Base Facility, Hilo — free guided tours on the second Friday of the month, 5:30 p.m. HST.

The Gemini North Hilo Base Facility is located in Hilo, Hawai‘i and operates the Gemini North telescope. The capacity for fully remote operation makes the Gemini telescopes unique among telescopes of their size.

Arizona

NOIRLab Headquarters Tucson — free guided tours on the first Friday of the month, 10:00 a.m. MST.

The Headquarters of NSF NOIRLab are located on Cherry Avenue in Tucson, Arizona near the University of Arizona campus. Directly across the street from HQ is the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory.

The guided tours will take you through the office landscape of the HQ building: NOIRLab’s lobby, where visitors check in with the receptionist at the beginning of their visit; the courtyard, an outdoor area where NOIRLab staff can read, eat lunch, or have small, informal meetings; the NOIRLab HQ library and its variety of reference materials, such as a physical collection of books and journals related to astronomy, technology, and related fields; and the machine shop, in place since 1960, with metal lathes, milling machines, drill presses, and grinding machines, some of which are controlled by Computer Numerical Control (CNC).

Kitt Peak National Observatory Visitor Center (KPVC)

Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is located at an altitude of 2096 meters (6877 feet) on the mountain I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in the Schuk Toak District of the Tohono O’odham Nation. It operates several telescopes, including the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter telescope — well known for discovering methane ice on Pluto — and the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope, whose NEID instrument is a state-of-the-art exoplanet hunter. KPNO also hosts more than a dozen telescopes operated by various international consortia.

The outstanding Kitt Peak Visitor Center has been inspiring guests for more than 60 years. It is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. MST. No tickets are required to go to the Visitor Center, but the observatory can currently only be visited as part of a tour.

Guided Daytime Tours of KPNO are available all week. Spaces are limited to 24 guests per tour. Kitt Peak is very much alive during the daylight hours and offers a variety of activities to enjoy. Each tour, led by a docent, visits one of the large, historic telescopes of Kitt Peak. Telescopes are occasionally closed to the public for maintenance. The Visitor Center does its best to alert visitors of any changes to the regularly scheduled tours.

The Nightly Observing Program is our most popular nighttime program and runs nightly year-round. It introduces guests to the night sky by means of various observing techniques. The Magnificent Moon Program gives a guided tour of many different locations on the surface of the Moon. The Dark Sky Discovery Program is for a smaller group and allows for more time looking through one of our Visitor Center observatory telescopes at objects in deep space such as star clusters, nebulas and distant galaxies.

The exclusive Overnight Telescope Observing Program gives you the full observatory experience and makes up to four guests visiting astronomers at Kitt Peak. Book your tickets on our website at visitkittpeak.org.

Chile

NOIRLab operates several telescopes in Chile that enable astronomers to observe from the southern hemisphere. The observatories are located high on the mountains of Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón, which — owing to the dry atmosphere and minimal cloud cover — offer exceptionally clear views of the night sky. For those interested in visiting these locations, buses transport visitors to and from the Observatory Access Gate and the mountain tops every Friday and Saturday of the year.

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) — free guided tours on Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. CLST.

Located at an altitude of 2200 meters (7200 feet) on the mountain of Cerro Tololo, CTIO comprises multiple different telescopes, each with its own specialty. One telescope open for public tours is the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, an optical telescope that saw first light in 1976. Today it houses the Department of Energy-built Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which among many things is investigating the expansion of the Universe, and may give us clues about the mysterious dark energy that is thought to pervade the cosmos. CTIO also hosts many tenant telescopes, offering astronomers around the world an exquisite view of the southern skies.

A highlight of the guided tours at this site is that visitors can walk around the internal platform inside the Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System (SMARTS) 1.5-meter telescope where they can watch the dome opening and the telescope moving. This telescope saw first light in 1967, and is now operated by the SMARTS consortium.

Gemini South and SOAR at Cerro Pachón — free guided tours on Fridays, 9:00 a.m. CLST.

About 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from Cerro Tololo is Cerro Pachón, another mountain offering excellent viewing conditions for observatories. Here, at an altitude of 2737 meters (8980 feet), is the Gemini South telescope. This is one half of the International Gemini Observatory, which comprises two identical 8.1-meter telescopes, one in each of Earth’s two hemispheres. Together, they offer a consistent view across the whole sky, and are contributing to research in almost all areas of astronomy.

On Cerro Pachón you can also find the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope, which is operated by CTIO. Observing in both optical and a range of infrared wavelengths, SOAR can capture both images and light spectra of celestial objects. This allows astronomers to study particular features in their light and deduce their chemical compositions.

If you visit Cerro Pachón, you might also see some exciting work in progress at NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is currently under construction. This new facility is set to achieve first light in mid-2025 and will be able to conduct deep surveys that will help to map the Milky Way, identify transient astronomical events, and study dark matter and dark energy.

The tours to the Chile telescope sites will involve a free transfer by bus from the Observatory Access Gate to the telescope sites for all visitors with a confirmed reservation.

AURA Recinto, La Serena — free guided tours on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, 10:00 a.m. CLST.

The base facility in Chile is called AURA Recinto. This is located in La Serena next to the campus of the University of La Serena, and houses remote observing rooms, shops, and accommodations for visiting observers.

We welcome the public to this facility too, with visits including talks about astronomy and the work that the observatory staff do here. These visits are particularly suitable for school groups.

Full information about these tours and reservation forms can all be found at NOIRLab’s Public Visits webpage.