Lowell Discovery Telescope facts for kids

The Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT), also known as the Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT), is a very powerful telescope. It has a main mirror that is 4.3 meters (about 14 feet) wide. The Lowell Observatory owns and operates this telescope.

The LDT is located in a very dark area of the sky. It sits in the Coconino National Forest near Happy Jack, Arizona. This spot is high up, at about 2,360 meters (7,740 feet) above sea level. It's about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south-east of Flagstaff.

Building the telescope was a team effort. It started as a partnership between Discovery Communications and Lowell Observatory. Now, other universities like Boston University, The University of Maryland, The University of Toledo, and Northern Arizona University also work with it. The telescope cost $53 million to build. It greatly helps Lowell Observatory study space and explore new things.

The Lowell Discovery Telescope is one of the biggest telescopes in the United States. As of 2019, it was the fifth largest telescope on the continent.

Construction of the telescope finished in February 2012. The first images it captured, called "first light," were taken in April 2012.

Telescope Design

The LDT uses a special design called a Ritchey–Chrétien design. Its main mirror is 4.3 meters (14 feet) across. This mirror is very thin, only about 10 centimeters (4 inches) thick. Even though it's thin, a special system with 156 parts keeps it in the perfect shape. This helps the telescope capture incredibly clear images.

The main mirror weighs about 6,700 pounds (3,000 kg). It was carefully shaped and polished at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences.

What makes the LDT extra powerful is its unique housing. It can hold up to five different scientific instruments at once. The telescope can switch between these instruments in about one minute. This quick change makes it perfect for studying events that happen fast, like gamma-ray bursts or supernovas.

How It Was Built

Lowell Observatory and Discovery Communications decided to build the telescope together in February 2003. They got permission to build it in November 2004 from the United States Forest Service. Work on the road to the site started right away.

The large piece of glass for the main mirror was made by Corning in late 2005. Then, in September 2005, they began building the telescope's dome. This dome is 85 feet (26 meters) tall and 62 feet (19 meters) wide.

The University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences spent about three years carefully shaping and polishing the mirror. The finished mirror arrived at the site in June 2010. After that, it was coated with a reflective material and placed onto the telescope in August 2011. The telescope officially started working in 2012.

Originally, the mirror was planned to be 4.2 meters (13.8 feet) wide. But engineers found a way to make it even bigger, at 4.3 meters (14.1 feet)!

What It Studies

The LDT helps scientists learn more about space. Its first goals were to study comets, exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), and how stars form in the Milky Way galaxy. It also looks at objects in the outer parts of our solar system.

Other research includes observing the Kuiper belt, which is a region of icy objects beyond Neptune. It also helps explore distant stars and galaxies. The telescope makes space exploration easier and more effective for many ongoing projects.

For example, the LDT helped identify P/2016 BA14 as a comet. When this comet came close to Earth, the telescope helped scientists figure out its size. They found its center was about 250 meters (820 feet) across. Another telescope first spotted the object, but the LDT confirmed it was a comet.

In 2017, the LDT was used for scientific observations on 282 nights out of the year.

Big Telescopes in the U.S.

Here's how the LDT compares to some of the largest optical telescopes in the continental United States:

See also

• Anderson Mesa Station
• EXPRES
• List of largest optical reflecting telescopes
• List of the largest optical telescopes in North America
• Lists of telescopes