Harlan J. Smith Telescope


The Harlan J. Smith Telescope is a 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 on 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. Smith was the Observatory Director for 26 years.

Vandalism damage

The telescope was the victim of an act of vandalism in February 1970. A newly hired worker suffered a mental breakdown and brought a hand gun 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 telescope to the equivalent of a 106-inch telescope, but did not affect the quality of the telescope's images, only the amount of light it can collect.

Observations

The telescope has been used to observe many things. Some achievements includes the stars BD +17° 3248 and 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.

Contemporaries on commissioning

Four largest telescopes 1968:
#Name /
Observatory
ImageApertureAltitudeFirst
Light
Special advocate
1Hale Telescope
Palomar Obs.
200 inch
508 cm
1713 m
1949Edwin Hubble
2C. Donald Shane telescope
Lick Observatory
120 inch
305 cm
1283 m
1959Nicholas Mayall
C. Donald Shane
3Harlan J. Smith Telescope
McDonald Observatory
107 in
270 cm
2070 m
1968Harlan J. Smith
4Shajn 2.6m
Crimean Astrophysical Obs.
102 in
260 cm
600 m
1961