14 miles away
Mormon Lake
A shallow intermittent lake in Pleasant Valley, Arizona's largest natural lake when full and a remnant marsh when it is not.
Lowell Discovery Telescope
A 4.3-metre telescope operated by Lowell Observatory near Happy Jack, the fifth largest optical telescope in the continental United States.
- Rank in Arizona
- #412of 727 ranked
- Overall score
- Score 37.6 out of 100medium confidence
- Category
- Observatory
The Lowell Discovery Telescope, formerly the Discovery Channel Telescope, is a 4.3-metre aperture telescope owned and operated by Lowell Observatory. It was built at a dark sky site in the Coconino National Forest near Happy Jack, Arizona, which lies at an elevation of 7,740 feet about 40 miles south-south-east of Flagstaff. The project began as a partnership between Discovery Communications and Lowell Observatory, and the research partnerships were later extended to Boston University, the University of Maryland, the University of Toledo, Northern Arizona University and Yale University. The telescope cost $53 million. Final construction was completed by February 2012 and first light images were taken in April of that year. As of 2026 it is the fifth largest optical telescope in the continental United States.
Where it is
Lowell Discovery Telescope is a observatory near Sedona, in Coconino County. It is one of the observatories in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.
How this ranking was reached
No official visitor count is published for Lowell Discovery Telescope, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.
Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.
Mentioned in
- Arizona protects its night sky in one set of places and uses it in another — Eight Arizona attractions hold International Dark Sky Park status and all eight publish visitor counts; twelve working observatories publish none.
Sources
- Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
- Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
- County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
- Official site: https://lowell.edu/research/research-facilities/4-3-meter-dct/(opens in a new tab)
Record last verified 2026-08-12.
More photographs
SSR2000, CC BY-SA 3.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Nearby attractions
14 miles away
The Crack at Wet Beaver Creek
A perennial pool on Wet Beaver Creek where the Bell Trail crosses it, three miles into the Wet Beaver Wilderness.
18 miles away
V-Bar-V Heritage Site
The largest known petroglyph site in the Verde Valley, with 1,032 petroglyphs in 13 panels, held by the Coconino National Forest.
19 miles away
Schnebly Hill Formation
A dark red sandstone unit 800 to 1,000 feet thick near Sedona, lying between the Coconino Sandstone and the Hermit Formation.
19 miles away
Coconino National Forest
A 1.856-million-acre national forest around Flagstaff and Sedona, rising from desert to Humphreys Peak at 12,633 feet.
20 miles away
Bell Rock
A butte of 4,919 feet south of Sedona, beside Courthouse Butte, with a moderate route to a plateau on its north-west face.
Facts and sources
Place
- Category
- Observatory
- Destination
- Sedona
- County
- Coconino County
- State
- Arizona
Visitation
- Annual visits
- Not published
Ranking
- Overall score
- 37.6 / 100
- Visitation score
- No published count
- Popularity score
- 20.2
- Significance score
- 52.0
- Confidence
- medium
Visiting
- Official website
- lowell.edu(opens in a new tab)
- Coordinates
- 34.7444, -111.4220
- Last verified
- 2026-08-12