Qualla: Steward Observatory https://qualla.com/steward-observatory en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/9/p/steward-observatory-wp/steward-observatory-sign-6v6a3.jpg Qualla: Steward Observatory https://qualla.com/steward-observatory Steward Observatory: Introduction https://qualla.com/steward-observatory/ Photo credit Alex Lovell-Troy from Managua, Nicaragua, CC BY 2.0. Beneath the east side of Arizona Stadium, where football crowds cheer on Saturday afternoons, molten glass spins in a rotating furnace at 2,140 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory, part of Steward Observatory, casting 8.4-meter telescope mirrors that no other facility on Earth can make. The scene would have astonished Lavinia Steward, the wealthy widow from Oracle, Arizona, whose anonymous $60,000 donation in 1916 founded the observatory that bears her late husband's name. From that single gift, intended to buy 'a telescope of huge size,' has grown one of the world's most influential astronomical research institutions, with telescopes spanning five Arizona mountaintops, plus sites in New Mexico, Hawaii, and Chile.

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Image: Alex Lovell-Troy from Managua, Nicaragua | CC BY 2.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/9/p/steward-observatory-wp/9t9p-steward-observatory-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Steward Observatory: Ten Years of Frustration https://qualla.com/steward-observatory/ Photo credit Rubin Obs./AURA/NSF/T. Jenness, CC BY 4.0. Andrew Ellicott Douglass arrived in Tucson in 1906 with a borrowed telescope and a dream. The astronomer, who would later pioneer dendrochronology and revolutionize climate science through tree-ring dating, took a position as Assistant Professor of Physics and Geography at the Un...

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Image: Rubin Obs./AURA/NSF/T. Jenness | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/9/p/steward-observatory-wp/9t9p-steward-observatory-ten-years-of-frustration.mp3 0:06 2 full Steward Observatory: A Widow's Memorial https://qualla.com/steward-observatory/ Photo credit KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský, CC BY 4.0. On October 18, 1916, University President Rufus B. von KleinSmid made a startling announcement: an anonymous donor had given $60,000 to buy a large telescope. The donor was Lavinia Steward, a wealthy widow living in Oracle, a small town in the Santa Catalina foothills north of Tu...

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Image: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/9/p/steward-observatory-wp/9t9p-steward-observatory-a-widows-memorial.mp3 0:06 3 full Steward Observatory: Mountains of Glass and Light https://qualla.com/steward-observatory/ Photo credit KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský, CC BY 4.0. Steward Observatory today operates telescopes across an empire of mountaintops. In southern Arizona alone, it manages Mount Graham International Observatory, Mount Lemmon Station, and Catalina Station on Mount Bigelow. It operates instruments at Kitt Peak National Observatory and...

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Image: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/9/p/steward-observatory-wp/9t9p-steward-observatory-mountains-of-glass-and-light.mp3 0:06 4 full Steward Observatory: The Mirror Factory https://qualla.com/steward-observatory/ Photo credit Burley Packwood, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Caris Mirror Lab has revolutionized how humanity builds telescopes. Its engineers pioneered spin-casting lightweight honeycomb mirrors in a rotating furnace, a technique that produces mirrors both lighter and more stable than solid glass. Stressed-lap polishing achieves surfa...

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Image: Burley Packwood | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/9/p/steward-observatory-wp/9t9p-steward-observatory-the-mirror-factory.mp3 0:06 5 full Steward Observatory: Eyes Beyond Earth https://qualla.com/steward-observatory/ Photo credit KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský, CC BY 4.0. Steward's influence reaches beyond any mountain. The Infrared Detector Laboratory built the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Multiband Imaging Photometer for the Spitzer Space Telescope. For the James Webb Space Telescope, ...

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Image: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/9/p/steward-observatory-wp/9t9p-steward-observatory-eyes-beyond-earth.mp3 0:06 6 full