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Facilities

Palomar

Palomar Observatory houses the giant 200 inch Hale Telescope on the summit of Mount Palomar in Southern California. Cornell astronomers utilize one fourth of the total observing time at Palomar to pursue their work in infrared and optical astronomy.

Spacecraft Planetary Imaging Facility (SPIF)

The Spacecraft Planetary Imaging Facility (SPIF) is sponsored jointly by NASA's Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program and Cornell University. SPIF is one member of the international network of Regional Planetary Image Facilities (RPIFs) which function as libraries for planetary image data and maintain ancillary and associated information about the data, including geologic maps and mission documentation.

Fuertes Observatory

Fuertes Observatory Come to Public Viewing nights on clear Fridays starting at 9pm! Location: Fuertes is located on a hill on the North Campus of Cornell University, near Helen Newman. (Fuertes is listed on the campus map). History: Click here for a pdf history of the Fuertes Observatory.

Hartung-Boothroyd Observatory

The Hartung–Boothroyd Observatory (HBO) is located atop Mount Pleasant near the Cornell University in Ithaca, New York (USA). It is used mainly as a teaching facility for upper-level astronomy classes. The observatory is named in honor of M. John Hartung and Samuel L. Boothroyd.

Spitzer

The Spitzer Space Telescope is the final mission of NASA's Great Observatories Program. Launched in August 2003, Spitzer completes a decade of exploration across the spectrum, providing unparallelled sensitivity in seeing the infrared universe.

SOFIA

NASA is developing the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy - or SOFIA - as a world-class airborne observatory that will complement the Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel and James Webb space telescopes.

Square Kilometre Array - SKA

The SKA will give astronomers insight into the formation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies after the Big Bang, the role of cosmic magnetism, the nature of gravity, and possibly life beyond Earth. If history is any guide, the SKA will make many more discoveries than we can imagine today.

Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope - CCAT

CCAT will be a 25 m telescope for submillimeter astronomy located at 5600 m altitude on Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile. CCAT will combine high sensitivity, a wide field of view, and a broad wavelength range to provide an unprecedented capability for deep, large area multicolor submillimeter surveys. Science objectives include galaxy formation and evolution throughout the history of the Universe; the hot gas pervading clusters of galaxies; star formation, protoplanetary disks, and debris disks in the Milky Way galaxy; and Kuiper belt objects in the outer reaches of the Solar system. Instrumentation will include bolometer cameras, direct detection spectrometers, and heterodyne receiver arrays.