The featured image was taken on the outskirts Kitt Peak National Observatory. It shows the rise of the moon against the background of the 4-meter telescope of Nicholas Mayall.
Kitt Peak National Observatory is located in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. It was founded in 1958. During its existence, the observatory made a number of important discoveries. These include the discovery of methane ice on Pluto and the discovery of the trans-Neptunian object Varuna.
The largest of the National Observatory’s telescopes is the 4-meter Nicholas Mayall Telescope, which saw its first light in 1973. Then it took second place in the list of the largest optical telescopes on the planet. In 2019, the DESI instrument was installed on the telescope. It is designed to obtain the spectra of millions of galaxies and quasars. This data will help create a detailed three-dimensional map of the universe that will shed light on nature and influence mysterious dark energy.
In the summer of 2022, the observatory suffered from forest fires. The fire did not damage the telescopes themselves, but caused damage to the associated infrastructure, destroying several buildings.
According to the materials https://noirlab.edu
