Kitt Peak 4-m Mayall Receives New Top End Ring

The Mayall telescope’s new top end ring was recently installed using a 450 ton crane with a 250 foot boom. The top ring will support new optics for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a state-of-the-art spectrometer that can measure the spectra of 5000 astronomical objects simultaneously. By surveying 30 million galaxies and quasars, DESI will explore the mysterious physics of dark energy, which is believed to accelerate the expansion of the Universe.