MMT Observatory

MMT Observatory, one of the world’s largest astronomical telescopes, located on top of 2,600-metre- (8,530-foot-) high Mount Hopkins, 60 km (37 miles) south of Tucson, Ariz. When it was built in 1979, it was originally called the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) because it combined the light collected by six 180-cm- (70-inch-) diameter telescopes into a single image. It thus had the light-gathering power of a single 450-cm (176-inch) telescope. Because of many technical innovations, the construction of the MMT cost substantially less than that of a conventional telescope of comparable size. At the time of the MMT’s construction, making one giant mirror would have been very expensive; however, subsequent innovations in mirror fabrication made the production of large mirrors more affordable. Therefore, from 1998 to 2000, the six mirrors of the MMT were replaced by a single 650-cm (255-inch) mirror. The MMT was renamed the MMT Observatory. The MMT Observatory is jointly owned and operated by the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Arizona.