Kitt Peak Visitor Center Marks 60 Years of Sharing the Wonder of Our Night Sky

Kitt Peak Visitor Center (KPVC) is the public’s gateway to the groundbreaking science being conducted at the U.S. National Science Foundation Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Over the past six decades, more than two million visitors have joined in KPVC programs to learn about Kitt Peak’s suite of world-class telescopes and their contribution to humanity’s understanding of the Universe, and to participate in daytime guided tours and nighttime stargazing programs.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, daytime tours and nighttime observing programs were offered to the public at discounted rates for the day, matching those offered 60 years ago in 1964.

Kitt Peak National Observatory was founded in 1958 and is home to one of the largest collections of optical and radio telescopes in the world. The observatory’s location high atop a magnificent sky island in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Arizona was carefully chosen to enable its telescopes’ missions to study the Sun and night sky. The land was leased by tribal elders of the Tohono O’odham Nation, which owns the land. As such, the relationship between KPNO and the Nation has been a focal point of KPVC since its inception.

Established in 1964, KPVC is one of the world’s oldest visitor experiences in a research observatory. But before becoming an established outreach center with multiple programs, KPVC started as an unassuming section in the lobby of the KPNO 2.1-meter telescope [1]. The center displayed educational posters and sold baskets and other native crafts made by Tohono O’odham Nation members. Selling native crafts honored KPNO’s privilege of conducting research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain sacred to the Tohono O’odham Nation. To this day, visits and tours of the mountain are free for Nation members and native crafts are still sold in the Gift Shop.

“The Tohono O’odham Nation united with Kitt Peak National Observatory for the education of the people, and their land agreement brought two cultures together — one with ancient roots here in the southwest, the other with modern eyes on the Universe,” says Vivian Segundo, KPVC Gift Shop Assistant Manager and member of the Tohono O’odham Nation. “Since the beginning, the Visitor Center has aimed to showcase this relationship and educate visitors about the cultural significance that the night sky has for the Nation.”

To connect people with astronomy at Kitt Peak, KPVC hosts daytime tours of three of the observatory’s largest telescopes: the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter telescope, the KPNO 2.1-meter telescope, and the McMath-Pierce Solar telescope. These docent-led tours take visitors through the awe-inspiring science and storied past of these historic telescopes.

Throughout the years KPNO has kept up with, and been an active participant in, the evolving landscape of astronomy and astrophysics. When the observatory first opened, humans hadn’t even set foot on the Moon. In fact, the Apollo astronauts came to KPNO to train and locate their landing areas on the Moon’s surface.

Some of the frontline science discoveries and milestones made possible by the telescopes at KPNO are the discovery of dark energy and the accelerated expansion of the Universe, confirming the existence of dark matter, producing the largest 3D map of the Universe, uncovering the first evidence of gravitational lensing, the discovery of water on the Sun, and much more. With the motto of “Explore With Us,” the Visitor Center has remained dedicated to sharing these discoveries with the public.

“Kitt Peak Visitor Center has always sought to bring our visitors closer to the skies — literally and figuratively,” says KPVC Operations Manager Peter McMahon. “Our telescope tours and observing programs offer the unique opportunity for members of the public to see and engage with the cutting-edge facilities that have put Kitt Peak on the map as a prominent center of astronomical discovery.”

After the Sun sets, KPVC treats visitors to exquisite night-sky views through a variety of nighttime observing programs. The most popular is the Nightly Observing Program, which lets visitors explore the sky with binoculars and telescopes. The Magnificent Moon Program takes visitors on a visual journey across the surface of the Moon, while the Dark Sky Discovery Program lets them view distant, deep sky objects. Lastly, the Overnight Telescope Observing Program provides all-night access to a KPNO telescope, giving visitors the unique opportunity to live like an astronomer for a night. This makes KPVC the only astronomy education center to offer an overnight observing program for members of the public.

In 2025, KPVC will launch a must-see educational attraction — the Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach. Housed inside the retired McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope — which until 2017 was the largest solar telescope in the world, and is currently the second largest telescope for public outreach in the world — Windows Center will feature interactive exhibits and educational programs that celebrate humanity’s pursuit to understand the cosmos. The towering, inverted-V concrete structure has long been considered an architectural wonder and has been described as “an American Stonehenge…like a tribute to the Sun God.” When the telescope was inaugurated in 1962, President John F. Kennedy called it “a source of pride to the nation…bold in concept and magnificent in execution.”

Looking back on the past 60 years, it’s apparent that KPVC’s dedicated efforts to bring the public closer to the science happening at KPNO have earned it recognition as an esteemed astronomy education and outreach center and a renowned Arizona tourist destination. As the Visitor Center enters its next decade of operations, it will continue its mission to inspire awe and wonder about our beautiful Universe.

“NSF recognizes the vital importance of the education and outreach activities led — and often pioneered — by Kitt Peak and the Visitor Center,” notes Chris Davis, NSF Program Director for NOIRLab. “We are hugely appreciative of the enthusiasm and dedication of the KPVC staff and look forward to many more years of tours and stargazing on I’oligam Du’ag. You just can’t beat looking through a real telescope to truly appreciate the wonders of the cosmos!”

Notes

[1] The KPNO 2.1-meter telescope was one of the observatory’s very first telescopes and celebrated its 60th anniversary on 15 September 2024.

More information

NSF NOIRLab (U.S. National Science Foundation National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory), the U.S. center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the International Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory (operated in cooperation with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

Links

• KPVC Tours & Programs
• Images of the Kitt Peak Visitor Center
• Images of Kitt Peak National Observatory
• Site map of Kitt Peak National Observatory