Live Like an Astronomer with Kitt Peak National Observatory’s Overnight Telescope Observing Program - Additional Dates Added!

Tickets on sale now for guided tours through the cosmos with Kitt Peak Visitor Center’s unique nighttime observing program

10 July 2024

If you have ever wondered what it’s like to be an astronomer, then put Kitt Peak National Observatory at the top of your destination list this summer. Located on the highest peak of the Quinlan Mountains, an hour southwest of Tucson, Arizona on the Tohono O’odham Nation, the world-class observatory not only offers a pristine view of the night sky, but also a unique nighttime observing program that lets visitors connect with the cosmos like never before.

Through Kitt Peak’s custom Overnight Telescope Observing Program, anyone can live like an astronomer for a full night. Tickets for this one-of-a-kind experience are now on sale.

Your overnight experience starts when you arrive at the Visitor Center in the late afternoon. Here you will meet your telescope operator who will assist you in getting settled into one of the on-site dormitories. After enjoying dinner, and a telescope becomes available, the night is yours for as long as you can last. Visual observing (looking at an object directly through an eyepiece) and imaging of incredible deep-sky objects are both possible. You may compile your own observing list or let the telescope operator make one for you. No prior experience in astronomy is necessary to participate in and enjoy this amazing program.

If you prefer a shorter evening experience, then the Nightly Observing Program is for you. This is our most popular program and runs nightly year-round. It offers guests an introduction to the dark night sky above Kitt Peak after they watch a glorious Arizona sunset from nearly 2100 meters (6900 feet) above sea level. The program features the use of planispheres and binoculars for identifying constellations, bright stars, and the brighter deep-sky objects. Guests will also spend an hour at the telescope exploring the night sky for spectacular celestial objects.

Open through the monsoon season. Beat the heat at Kitt Peak! 

Kitt Peak National Observatory is located on a sacred Tohono O’odham Nation sky island high above the Sonoran Desert with a unique mountain environment, geology, flora and fauna. A selection of docent-led daytime telescope tours offers access to the spectacular views of the mountain. During the tours visitors can explore Kitt Peak’s rich assortment of telescopes — the largest and most diverse collection in the world — and their respective histories and discoveries.

Among the tour highlights is a visit to the U.S. National Science Foundation Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope, home of the record-breaking Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). The DESI project, managed by the U.S. Department of Energy, aims to study the mysterious dark energy by creating a 3D map of over 40 million galaxies. A second tour visits the KPNO 2.1-Meter Telescope, which was one of the earliest Kitt Peak telescopes and is used for both imaging and spectroscopy. A third tour explores the iconic McMath Pierce Solar Telescope — the largest solar telescope in the world for over 50 years.

The Kitt Peak Visitor Center is your first stop on any visit and your springboard to informative daytime tours, nighttime stargazing and telescope viewing programs, fascinating exhibits, a terrific gift shop, and beautiful panoramic mountain top views!

More information 

NSF NOIRLab (U.S. National Science Foundation National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory), the U.S. center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the International Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory (operated in cooperation with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

Links

• KPNO Overnight Telescope Observing Program
• Book tours
• Images of the Kitt Peak Visitor Center
• Images of Kitt Peak National Observatory
• Site map of Kitt Peak National Observatory

Contacts

Peter McMahon
Kitt Peak Visitor Center Operations Manager
NSF NOIRLab
Email: peter.mcmahon@noirlab.edu

Josie Fenske
Jr. Public Information Officer
NSF NOIRLab
Email: josie.fenske@noirlab.edu