Virtual Tours of Astronomical Observatories

• Apache Point Observatory (New Mexico)
  Northern observing site for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Arecibo Observatory (Puerto Rico)
  It used to be the world's largest single dish radio telescope, but it broke.
• Big Bear Solar Observatory (Caltech)
  The tour page has nice pictures, but the full-size ones are huge.
• Bulgarian National Astronomical Observatory (Rozhen)
  Pictures of the largest telescope in southeast Europe and its mates.
• Chamberlin Observatory (Denver University)
  A few pictures.
• Gemini Observatory (Mauna Kea and Cerro Pachon in Chile)
  Click to start tour.
• Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles)
  Click on the map for more photos and information from this public observatory
• Haystack Observatory (Massachusetts)
  From an aerial photo, you can click into information about various radio (and optical) telescopes at the site.
• Indian Hill Observatory (Ohio)
  A tour through time as a group of amateur astronomers clear a dark site and build an observatory
• James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (Mauna Kea, Hawaii)
  Closed
• W.M. Keck Observatory (Mauna Kea, Hawaii)
  Click to start tour.
• Kitt Peak National Observatory
  Now part of NOIRLab, there doesn't seem to be a page with a map of the summit and pictures of the telescopes.
• Kuiper Airborne Observatory (NASA Ames, Mountain View, CA, no longer flying)
  There's a nice NASA movie about the KAO and check out Wikipedia for a textual explanation and a picture of the rusting C-141 in 2016. More pictures of the KAO at work are on this page about the 1977 discover the rings of Uranus.
• Lick Observatory (University of California, Santa Cruz)
  LOTS of pictures are linked from here, and a nice short movie by astronomer Steve Vogt.
• Lowell Observatory (Flagstaff, Arizona)
  No more online tour, but lots of exhibits.
• Maunakea Observatories (Hawaii)
  [Aerial Tour]
• McDonald Observatory (University of Texas)
  Telescope pictures, but not really a tour.
• MDM Observatory (Kitt Peak Ridge - Michigan, Dartmouth, Columbia, Ohio State, Ohio U.)
  Telescopes and buildings, and a bit of the quite gorgeous setting.
• Mount Hopkins Observatories (Smithsonian Institution and University of Arizona)
  Clickable images of most of the telescopes on the mountain, including both the new and old MMT.
• Mount Laguna Observatory (San Diego State University)
• Mt. Wilson Observatory (California) PDF map with points of interest, but images scatterred around the web site.
• L'Observatoire de Nice (France, en Francais)
  Part of the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur
• Oak Ridge Observatory (Massachusetts)
  Formerly operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
• Palomar Observatory (Caltech)
  Click to start tour.
• SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy)
  Self-guided brochure tour
• University of Illinois Observatory
  Historic pictures and a useful list of other US college observatories.
• Yerkes Observatory (Wiliams Bay, Wisconsin)
  Few pictures, but a great history

  Virtual Astronomical Observatories

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  Last updated by Jessica Mink on August 17, 2022.