MMT Observatory MMT Observatory The MMT Observatory (MMTO) is an astronomical observatory on the site of Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (IAU observatory code 696). The Whipple observatory complex is located on Mount Hopkins, Arizona, US (55 km south of Tucson) in the Santa Rita Mountains. The observatory is run by the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Institution, and has a visitor center in nearby Amado, Arizona. The MMTO is the home of the MMT (formerly Multiple Mirror Telescope), which currently has a primary mirror 6.5 m in diameter. The name originally comes from the fact that the light gathering for the
Perkins Observatory instrument on site, interest in Perkins Observatory within the Ohio State University Astronomy Department declined. The on-site staff shrank until there was just a part-time secretary and a building superintendent who had only a small maintenance budget. Few of the observatory’s Directors (employees of OSU) spent much time at the observatory. There was not even enough money in the budget to maintain subscriptions to prominent astronomy magazines for the Observatory’s library. For some years a small dome detached and separated from the main observatory building housed a 0.6-meter f1.8 Schmidt telescope. In 1990 this instrument was moved to Lowell Observatory