Largest optical telescopes in the world
The world's largest optical reflecting telescopes — every one with an effective aperture of about 3 metres or more — with aperture, mirror type, sponsoring countries, site and year of first light. One row per telescope.
Columns
Stable keys — use them in the API, SQL and code
| Key | Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| id | ID | string | — |
| name | Telescope | string | — |
| wikidata | Wikidata | entity | — |
| aperture_m | Aperture | number · m | Effective aperture in metres. |
| mirror_type | Mirror type | string | Single (monolithic), segmented, multiple mirrors, liquid (spinning mercury) or combined primary/tertiary. |
| mirror_detail | Mirror detail | string | — |
| sponsors | Nationality / sponsors | string | — |
| site | Site | string | — |
| first_light | First light | year | Year the telescope first collected light. |
| later_event | Later change | string | A later event the article records, e.g. decommissioned, relocated or aperture increased; blank when none. |
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