We went for the daytime tour and "Solar Viewing Tour" since we were there on a Monday and the "Star Parties" are on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Given that they often have as many as 400 show up for the star parties we were not unhappy with a daytime tour. You will learn more than you ever wanted to know about those telescopes on the guided tour, but you do not get to see them up close if you do not take the guided tour.
Mr. W. J. McDonald, a banker in Paris, TX, died without children in 1926 leaving a bequest to the University of Texas for "the study and promotion of the study of Astronomical Science". The problem was U.T. didn't have an Astronomy department. The University of Chicago did have a team of astronomers but a lousy telescope and viewing site. The two universities collaborated for 30 years, building this observatory and studying the night skies. In late 1963 U.T. full took over the facility. A newer, bigger telescope was added in 1968, followed by another one in 1997, and construction of the latest and greatest telescope began in 2015.
If you want to know more about the timeline
click here.
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| Visitors Center showed up in 2002. |
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| A geodetic satelite site under construction. |
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| Hard to know what time it is on a cloudy day. |
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Shannon, tour guide extraordinaire. The knowledge of
the people who work here makes my head hurt. |
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| Long story why it is 107" instead of 105 or 110. |
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Blows my mind that they take this apart every other year
and clean every part, then put back together. |
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This one is made up of a collection of 31 mirrors all
joined together instead of all one big lens. |
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