Bok Telescope
The Bok Telescope (also known as the 90-inch) is the largest telescope operated solely by Steward Observatory. It finds much use from astronomers from the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University, with instruments capable of both imaging and spectroscopy. The telescope operates year-round, except during the August summer-shutdown when maintenance is performed while the weather is poor (Arizona's monsoon season lasts from roughly July through August).
Also recorded as the 90-inch
Bok Telescope

General Epitaph at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
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- United States
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Documentary evidence
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wikidata · Q4938704 · wikipedia · Bok Telescope
In this article
History
History
• Illustration — The telescope The Bok Telescope was named after the prolific astronomer and director of Steward Observatory from 1966–1969, Bart Bok, one of the most beloved astronomers in Tucson. It was used on March 18, 2007 by Bruno Sicardy to view Pluto's occultation of a star in Sagittarius. The building itself features a very long spiral staircase leading to the telescope and a balcony called "The Bok Walk". In the 2010s the Bok telescope helped support a survey with KNPO telescopes in preparation for the DESI instrument on the 4-m Mayall telescope. The Bok telescope was used along with the 90 Prime imager to take g-band and r-band observations.
Instruments
Instruments
• Illustration — Panorama of the control room As of 2008, there were instruments that are mainly used at the 90-inch, two that worked in the optical and one in the near-IR. The 90prime instrument, whose principal investigator is Edward Olszewski, was a prime focus, wide-field imager capable of imaging 1 square degree on the sky, while the B&C Spectrograph did spectroscopy. The Steward 256x256 NIR Camera, which has been available at the telescope since 1991, used a NICMOS array which was built during the development of the NICMOS instrument on the HST. The 90-inch was also fitted with an eyepiece for direct viewing by a human observer, uncharacteristic for telescopes of this size.
Places
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Places
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- United States
Named but not plotted · 1
Bok Telescope is associated with United States.
Country
Literature
Literature
Literature
A distortion solution for the Bok telescope with four CCD chips, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2019
Scholarly footprint
Literature
Scholarly footprint
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Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Bok Telescope, revision 1370804803 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.90-inch Website.
- 2.Arizona Telescopes Focus On Pluto Early March 18.
- 3.Dey, Arjun. Mosaic3: a red-sensitive upgrade for the prime focus camera at the Mayall 4m telescope. Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI. 9908. 99082C. August 2016. 10.1117/12.2231488.
- 4.256x256 Page.
References
Citations
References
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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