The WIYN Telescope, a 3.5-meter instrument employing many technological breakthroughs, is the newest and second largest telescope on Kitt Peak. The WIYN Observatory (pronounced “win”) is owned and operated by the WIYN Consortium, which consists of the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Yale University, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO).
This partnership between public and private universities and NOAO is the first of its kind. The universities benefit from access to a well-run observatory at an excellent site, and the larger astronomical community served by NOAO benefits from the addition of this large, state-of-the-art telescope to Kitt Peak’s array of telescopes.
The innovations that have gone into the design, testing, and construction of the new 3.5-meter WIYN telescope make it one of the most powerful telescopes in its class. New telescopes such as WIYN and the larger (8-10 meter) telescopes now under construction around the world will be valuable tools both as primary research facilities and in support of much more expensive space-based telescopes.