The 3.5 meter carries instruments to measure the brightness, position, color, and spectrum of celestial bodies. The 2.5 meter telescope is devoted to a mapping and spectrographic analysis project that will provide the distances to over one million galaxies and a hundred thousand quasars. There are two additional telescopes on site. A 0.6 meter instrument is used to provide calibration and sky monitoring for the 2.5 meter. There's also a 1.0 meter scope used for staff research by New Mexico State University.
Visitors are welcome to walk anywhere on the grounds.
Beyond the telescope complex, the distant views of the Tularosa Basin, Organ Mountains and the White Sands National Monument from Apache Point are breathtaking. At an altitude of 9200 feet, Apache Point is the third highest observatory in the United States after Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Kitt Peak in Arizona. N.M. Here there are several telescopes devoted to solar research. One of the more interesting instruments is the vacuum tower telescope, which rises thirteen stories above the mountaintop and extends 220 feet below ground. In most solar telescopes, sunlight heats the air in the telescope tubes, which causes unstable images.