The Harlan J. Smith Telescope is a 2.7m (107-in.) telescope located at the McDonald Observatory, in Texas, in the United States. This telescope is one of several research telescopes that are part of the University of Texas at Austin observatory perched atop Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of west Texas. The telescope was completed in 1968 with substantial NASA assistance, and is named after Harlan James Smith, the first Texas director of McDonald Observatory. Mr. Smith was the Observatory Director for 26 years.
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The telescope was the victim of an act of vandalism in February 1970. A newly-hired worker suffered a mental breakdown and brought a handgun into the observatory. After firing one shot at his supervisor, the worker then fired the remaining rounds into the Primary Mirror. The holes effectively reduced the 107-inch (2.7 m) telescope to the equivalent of a 106-inch (2.7 m) telescope, but did not affect the quality of the telescope's images, only the amount of light it can collect.[1]
The telescope has been used to observe many things. Some achievements includes the star BD +17° 3248 and the star XO-1.
Jorge Meléndez of the Australian National University and Iván Ramírez of the University of Texas discovered the star HIP 56948 in 2007 using the Harlan J. Smith telescope at McDonald Observatory.[2]
Four largest telescopes 1968:
| # | Name / Observatory |
Image | Aperture | Altitude | First Light |
Special advocate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hale Telescope Palomar Obs. |
200 inch 508 cm |
1713 m (5620 ft) |
1949 | Edwin Hubble | |
| 2 | C. Donald Shane telescope Lick Observatory |
120 inch 305 cm |
1283 m (4209 ft) |
1959 | Nicholas Mayall C. Donald Shane |
|
| 3 | Harlan J. Smith Telescope McDonald Observatory |
107 in 270 cm |
2070 m (6791 ft) |
1968 | Harlan J. Smith | |
| 4 | Shajn 2.6m (Crimean 102 inch) Crimean Astrophysical Obs. |
102 in 260 cm |
600 m (1969 ft) [3] |
1961 |