Kitt Peak National Observatory
We are currently only hosting public visitors at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Given the continuously evolving nature of the pandemic, we currently do not have a reopening date for our other summit sites or base facilities. When these dates are available we will share them on our website and social media. The timeline may be different for each site.
Founded in 1958, Kitt Peak National Observatory is home to one of the largest arrays of optical and radio telescopes in the world.
Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a program of the NOIRLab. KPNO operates the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope on behalf of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey (a project led by the US Department of Energy Office of Science) and the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope (a partnership between Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Purdue University, the NSF and NASA). It also hosts the facilities of consortia that operate between them more than a dozen optical telescopes and two radio telescopes.
KPNO is located 90 km (56 miles) southwest of Tucson, Arizona, at an altitude of 2096 m (6877 ft) in the Schuk Toak District on the Tohono O'odham Nation and has a visitor center open daily and nightly to the public, offering daytime guided tours and a variety of evening stargazing programs.
The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that this site has to the Tohono O'odham Nation.
KPNO is a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, which is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.
Travel information for KPNO is available here.