Magellan Telescopes

The Magellan Telescopes are two 6.5 meter diameter optical telescopes at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The two were named after the Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan. Each telescope is also named; the Baade after astronomer Walter Baade, and the Clay after the philanthropist Landon T. Clay. First light for the telescopes was on September 15, 2000 for the Baade, and September 7, 2002 for the Clay. The Carnegie Institution for Science, University of Arizona, Harvard University, University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology worked together to build and operate the twin telescopes. The Magellan Planet Search Program is looking for planets using a spectrograph mounted on the 6.5m Magellan II (Clay) telescope. References Other websites Magellan Project homepage Archived 2010-10-08 at the Wayback Machine