0.1 miles away
Kitt Peak National Observatory
An observatory west of Tucson holding more than twenty optical telescopes, one of the largest such gatherings in the northern hemisphere.
McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope
A 1.6-metre solar telescope of 1962 at Kitt Peak, once the largest solar telescope and the largest unobstructed-aperture optical telescope in the world.
- Rank in Arizona
- #403of 727 ranked
- Overall score
- Score 38.3 out of 100medium confidence
- Category
- Observatory
The McMath–Pierce solar telescope is a 1.6-metre f/54 reflecting solar telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Built in 1962, it was the largest solar telescope and the largest unobstructed-aperture optical telescope in the world. The building was designed by the American architect Myron Goldsmith and the Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan. Originally called the McMath Solar Telescope, it was renamed in 1992 after the astronomers Robert Raynolds McMath and Keith Pierce. Although designed for observation of the Sun, it can also be used to view bright objects at night. In 2018 the telescope received a grant of $4.5 million for an enhanced visitor centre and other programmes.
Where it is
McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope is a observatory near Altar Valley, in Pima 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 McMath–Pierce Solar 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://noirlab.edu/public/programs/kitt-peak-national-observatory/mcmath-pierce-solar-telescope/(opens in a new tab)
Record last verified 2026-08-12.
More photographs
KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/D. Salman, CC BY 4.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab) 
Burley Packwood, CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Nearby attractions
0.5 miles away
Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope
A four-metre reflector at Kitt Peak, second-largest in the world at first light in 1973 and now host to the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument.
12 miles away
Baboquivari Peak Wilderness
The smallest designated wilderness in Arizona, 2,065 acres around Baboquivari Peak, a technical summit sacred to the Tohono O'odham.
24 miles away
Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge
A 117,107-acre US Fish and Wildlife Service refuge in Pima County, created for the reintroduction of masked bobwhite quail and pronghorn.
32 miles away
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
A 98-acre zoo, aquarium, botanical garden and natural history museum west of Tucson, founded in 1952 to interpret the Sonoran Desert.
Facts and sources
Place
- Category
- Observatory
- Destination
- Altar Valley
- County
- Pima County
- State
- Arizona
Visitation
- Annual visits
- Not published
Ranking
- Overall score
- 38.3 / 100
- Visitation score
- No published count
- Popularity score
- 22.0
- Significance score
- 52.0
- Confidence
- medium
Visiting
- Official website
- noirlab.edu(opens in a new tab)
- Coordinates
- 31.9584, -111.5950
- Last verified
- 2026-08-12