Hobby-Eberly Telescope
The HET was designed and constructed with a unique objective: to gather a very large amount of light, specifically for spectroscopy, at extremely low cost.
A fixed elevation-axis design, based on the radio telescope at Arecibo, and an innovative system for tracking stars, contributed to an 80% reduction in initial costs compared to optical telescopes of similar size. The primary mirror of the HET is the largest yet constructed, at 11.1 x 9.8 meters. At any given time during observations, only a portion of the mirror is utilized. The HET's 9.2 meter effective aperture makes it currently the world's fourth largest optical telescope.
Work is underway to modify the telescope for the upcoming Dark Energy Experiment. A new tracker, the massive framework on the top of the HET, will increase the telescope's field of view. The addition of 130 integral field spectrographs, mounted to the sides of the main framework, will give the HET the ability to map the expansion rate of the early universe, looking back in time billions of years, to measure how clusters of galaxies moved in relation to one another as the universe evolved.
Observers
Engineering
The pages of Mt. Fowlkes engineering staff, including policies and procedures, operations schedules, the problem report management system, and other information.
Trimester Reports
The Trimester reports are prepared by the HET Lead RA and include information about the seeing, weather, allocation of observations by partner, distribution of objects and status of the equipment.
Science and Technical Publications
Bibliographic lists of HET science and technical publications.
Construction Photos
Coordinates
Mt. Fowlkes
Lat: 30° 40' 53.2" N
Long: 104° 00' 53.0" W
Elev: 2025 m above geoid
HET Partners
Ludwig Maximilians Universität
