Magellan Telescopes
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| Organisation |
Carnegie Institution for Science 
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| Location(s) |
Las Campanas Observatory , Chile
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| Coordinates | 29°00′54″S 70°41′30″W / 29.015°S 70.6917°WCoordinates: 29°00′54″S 70°41′30″W / 29.015°S 70.6917°W |
| Altitude | 2,516 m (8,255 ft) |
| Wavelength | Optical, near-IR |
| Built | First lights September 15, 2000 and September 7, 2002 |
| Diameter | Both 6.5 m |
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The Magellan Telescopes are a pair of 6.5 m (21.3 ft) diameter optical telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The two telescopes are named after the astronomer Walter Baade and the philanthropist Landon T. Clay.
First light for the telescopes was on September 15, 2000 for the Baade, and September 7, 2002 for the Clay.
A collaboration between 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.
It was named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.
Is a survey of start searching for planets using the MIKE echelle spectrograph mounted on the 6.5m Magellan II (Clay) telescope.
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 miles (161 km) 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 an diameter of 36 inches (910 mm). However, the edge of the mirror was broken. Technicians at Steward Observatory were able to cut the mirror to 33.5 inches (850 mm) in diameter, thereby removing the broken edge.
Part of Las Campanas Observatory after snowfall, with the Magellan telescopes at the right.
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Wikipedia