Magellan Telescopes
The Magellan Telescopes are a pair of 6.5 m optical telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The two telescopes are named after the astronomer Walter Baade and the philanthropist Landon T. First light for the telescopes was on September 15, 2000 for the Baade, and September 7, 2002 for the Clay. A consortium consisting of the Carnegie Institution for Science, University of Arizona, Harvard University, the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology built and operate the twin telescopes.
Also recorded as Walter Baade Magellan 6.5-m telescope (LCO) · Magellan-Baade
Magellan Telescopes
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The Magellan Telescopes are a pair of 6.5 m optical telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The two telescopes are named after the astronomer Walter Baade and the philanthropist Landon T. First light for the telescopes was on September 15, 2000 for the Baade, and September 7, 2002 for the Clay. A consortium consisting of the Carnegie Institution for Science, University of Arizona, Harvard University, the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology built and operate the twin telescopes.
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Current instruments on the Magellan Telescopes
Current instruments on the Magellan Telescopes
The telescopes were named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is an extremely large telescope under construction, as part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program.
Baade telescope: • Inamori Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph (IMACS) • FourStar • Folded port InfraRed Echellette (FIRE) • Magellan Echellete (MagE) Clay telescope: • Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) spectrograph • Low-Dispersion Survey Spectrograph-3 (LDSS-3) • Megacam imager • MagAO-X • Michigan/Magellan Fiber System (M2FS)
Magellan Planet Search Program
Magellan Planet Search Program
This program is a survey of stars searching for planets using the MIKE echelle spectrograph mounted on the 6.5 m Magellan II (Clay) telescope.
MagAO Adaptive Optics System
MagAO Adaptive Optics System
In 2013, Clay (Magellan II) was equipped with an adaptive secondary mirror called MagAO which allowed it to take the sharpest visible-light images to date, capable of resolving objects 0.02 arcseconds across—equivalent to a dime (1.8 cm) seen from 100 mi away. MagAO was originally intended for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), but the secondary mirror was damaged before it could be installed. The project leader Laird Close and his team were able to repair and repurpose the broken mirror for use on Magellan II. As built for the LBT, the original MagAO mirror had a diameter of 36 in. However, the edge of the mirror was broken. Technicians at Steward Observatory were able to cut the mirror to 33.5 in in diameter, thereby removing the broken edge.
Gallery
Gallery
• Illustration — Part of Las Campanas Observatory after snowfall, with the Magellan telescopes at the right. • Illustration — Telescopes at night
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- arXiv, Cornell University, preprints naming “Magellan Telescopes”
Scholarly · arXiv (Cornell University)
reference work
- “Magellan Telescopes”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
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authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1541020: Magellan Telescopes
General reference · Wikidata
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arXiv, Cornell University, preprints naming “Magellan Telescopes”arXiv (Cornell University)
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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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