The Harlan J. Smith Telescope is a 2.7m (107-in.) telescope located at the McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory

The McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near the unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Fowlkes and Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas...

, in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. This telescope is one of several research telescopes that are part of the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

 observatory perched atop Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of west Texas. The telescope was completed in 1968 with substantial NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 assistance, and is named after Harlan James Smith

Harlan James Smith

Harlan James Smith was an American astronomer.He was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, the son of Paul and Anna McGregor Smith. While attending Wheeling High School he was named first runner up in the "Westinghouse National Science Talent Search". From 1943 until the end of World War II he served...

, the first Texas director of McDonald Observatory. Mr. Smith was the Observatory Director for 26 years.

Vandalism Damage

The telescope was the victim of an act of vandalism

Vandalism

Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...

 in February 1970. A newly-hired worker suffered a mental breakdown

Mental breakdown

Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...

 and brought a handgun into the observatory. After firing one shot at his supervisor, the worker then fired the remaining rounds into the Primary Mirror. The holes effectively reduced the 107 inches (2.7 m) telescope to the equivalent of a 106 inches (2.7 m) telescope, but did not affect the quality of the telescope's images, only the amount of light it can collect.

Observations

The telescope has been used to observe many things. Some achievements includes the star BD +17° 3248 and the star XO-1

XO-1

XO-1 is a magnitude 11 yellow dwarf star located approximately 600 light-years away in the constellation Corona Borealis. XO-1 has a mass and radius similar to the Sun...

.

Jorge Meléndez of the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

 and Iván Ramírez

Iván Ramírez

Iván Ramírez is an undefeated Mexican professional boxer in the Middleweight division.-Professional career:...

 of the University of Texas discovered the star HIP 56948

HIP 56948

HIP 56948 is a solar twin star of type G5V, which as of March 2011, is the most sun-like star yet discovered in terms of size, mass, temperature, chemical makeup and, arguably, age...

 in 2007 using the Harlan J. Smith telescope at McDonald Observatory

McDonald Observatory

The McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near the unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Fowlkes and Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas...

.

Contemporaries on commissioning

Four largest telescopes 1968:

#	Name / Observatory	Image	Aperture	Altitude	First Light	Special advocate
1	Hale Telescope Hale telescope The Hale Telescope is a , 3.3 reflecting telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California, named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, he orchestrated the planning, design, and construction of the observatory, but did not live to see its commissioning...   Palomar Obs. Palomar Observatory Palomar Observatory is a privately owned observatory located in San Diego County, California, southeast of Pasadena's Mount Wilson Observatory, in the Palomar Mountain Range. At approximately elevation, it is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology...		200 inch 508 cm	1713 m (5620 ft)	1949	Edwin Hubble Edwin Hubble Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer who profoundly changed the understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way - our own galaxy...
2	C. Donald Shane telescope C. Donald Shane telescope The C. Donald Shane telescope is a reflecting telescope located at the Lick Observatory in California. It was named after astronomer C. Donald Shane in 1978, who led the effort to acquire the necessary funds from the California Legislature, and who then oversaw the telescope's construction...   Lick Observatory Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...		120 inch 305 cm	1283 m (4209 ft)	1959	Nicholas Mayall Nicholas Mayall Nicholas Ulrich Mayall was an American observational astronomer. After obtaining his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, Mayall worked at the Lick Observatory, where he remained from 1934–1960, except for a brief period at MIT's Radiation Laboratory during World War II.During...   C. Donald Shane
3	Harlan J. Smith Telescope McDonald Observatory McDonald Observatory The McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near the unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Fowlkes and Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas...		107 in 270 cm	2070 m (6791 ft)	1968	Harlan J. Smith Harlan James Smith Harlan James Smith was an American astronomer.He was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, the son of Paul and Anna McGregor Smith. While attending Wheeling High School he was named first runner up in the "Westinghouse National Science Talent Search". From 1943 until the end of World War II he served...
4	Shajn 2.6m (Crimean 102 inch) Crimean Astrophysical Obs. Crimean Astrophysical Observatory The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory is located in Ukraine. CrAO has been publishing the Bulletin of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory since 1947, in English since 1977. The observatory facilities are located near the settlement of Nauchny since the mid-1950s; before that, they were further...		102 in 260 cm	600 m (1969 ft) http://quake.stanford.edu/~crao/craoinfo/general.html	1961