In the early 1960s, as NASA geared up towards space exploration, engineers and astronomers at the federal organization felt the need for a large telescope through which they could survey the planets before dispatching spacecraft to study them in detail. At the McDonald Observatory, in Texas, the new director Harlan J. Smith, saw an opportunity and convinced NASA to fund for a new one at the observatory.
McDonald Observatory was one of the premier destination for astronomy at that time because of the clear dry air of its location and moderately high elevation. It was also home to the 82-inch Otto Struve Telescope, using which German astronomer Gerard Kuiper discovered a new moon of the planet Neptune, named Nereid, in 1949. At the time of its construction in 1939, it was the world’s second largest telescope.
The dome of Harlan J. Smith Telescope. Photo: Fredlyfish4/Wikimedia
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