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Loading contentFrom mountaintop optical giants to space telescopes and gravitational-wave detectors — 61 observatories and telescopes across 108 interconnected entities, spanning every band of the electromagnetic spectrum and beyond.
18 observatories · 25 telescopes · 18 space telescopes · 11 instruments · 10 sky surveys · 12 observing bands · 3 observing sites · 11 organizations
Radio dish · 500 m
FAST, the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope in China, is the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, used to study pulsars and fast radio bursts.
Radio dish · 100 m
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope, with a 100-metre dish.
Optical / infrared reflector · 39.3 m
ESO's Extremely Large Telescope, under construction in Chile, will be the world's largest optical/infrared telescope with a 39-metre segmented mirror. It is not yet operational.
Optical / infrared reflector · 30 m
The Thirty Meter Telescope is a planned 30-metre optical/infrared telescope; its site remains the subject of ongoing decisions. It is not yet operational.
Submillimeter dish · 15 m
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea is a 15-metre submillimeter telescope and a station of the Event Horizon Telescope.
Submillimeter dish · 12 m
APEX is a 12-metre submillimeter telescope in the Atacama Desert, a pathfinder for ALMA studying cold dust and gas.
Optical spectroscopic reflector · 11 m
SALT in Sutherland, South Africa is the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, a sibling of the Hobby–Eberly design.
Optical / infrared reflector · 10.4 m
The Gran Telescopio Canarias on La Palma is one of the largest single-aperture optical telescopes in the world, with a 10.4-metre segmented mirror.
Optical / infrared reflector · 10 m
Keck I is one of two 10-metre Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, using a segmented primary mirror of 36 hexagonal segments.
Every observatory facility in the encyclopedia.
Observatory facilities on the Earth's surface.
Observatories that operate from orbit and beyond.
Telescopes that gather visible light.
Telescopes and arrays that observe radio waves.
Telescopes that observe heat — infrared light.
Observatories of the high-energy X-ray universe.
Observatories of the most energetic light.
Telescopes and missions that study the Sun.
Facilities that map large areas of the sky.
Systematic surveys mapping the cosmos.
The cameras and spectrographs that gather the data.
The biggest light-collecting apertures in the world.
The instruments that founded modern astronomy.
Observatories under construction — not yet operational.
Detectors that sense ripples in spacetime.
Detectors that catch ghostly cosmic particles.
Observatories that combine light, waves, and particles.
The observatories encyclopedia is curated from authoritative public sources — NASA, ESA, ESO, NOIRLab, NSF, NRAO, NAOJ, STScI, and observatory pages. Apertures, altitudes, first-light dates, operators, and instruments are well-established public facts; uncertain values are omitted, and future facilities are clearly marked as not yet operational. See the source quality page.