A Tour of MDM Observatory on Kitt Peak, Arizona

Jules Halpern - October 18, 2022

View of MDM Observatory Looking Southwest
MDM Observatory






Looking Northeast with Kitt Peak National Observatory in Background
MDM Observatory





Current MDM Membership
MDM Membership





1.3m McGraw-Hill Observatory (Est. 1975)
McGraw-Hill Observatory

1.3m McGraw-Hill Telescope
1.3m Telescope





2.4m Hiltner Telescope (Est. 1986)
Hiltner Telescope

2.4m Hiltner Telescope
2.4m Telescope





" . . . the fire next time."
The fire next time

The Morning After
The next morning

The Heroes
The heros





Observatory Staff
Eric Galayda - Site Manager
Tony Negrete - Technician
Justin Rupert - 2.4m Queue Observer

Modes of Observing 2.4m 1.3m
Observer on Site √ √
Observer Remote √
Queue Scheduled √

Is Columbia Time Oversubscribed? 2.4m 1.3m
Dark Time Yes No
Bright Time No No

Proposal Deadlines
~ November 1, 2022
~ May 1, 2023

Instrumentation partial list
OSMOS (Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph, 2.4m only) example
MDM4K (MDM 4K CCD Imager, 2.4m default)
Templeton (1K SITe CCD, 1.3m default)
CCDS (Boller & Chivens Spectrograph, 2.4m or 1.3m)
Andor Guide Camera, 2.4m and 1.3m

Faculty Current Science Areas
Marcel Agüeros Open Clusters, White Dwarfs
Jules Halpern X-ray Sources, Compact Objects
Mary Putman Circumgalactic Medium
David Schiminovich Galaxies, Instrumentation (Circumgalactic Hα Spectrograph)

MDM Observatory

Last Modified: October 18, 2022 jph1@columbia.edu