The Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is located near the summit of

Mauna Kea Mauna Kea (, ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant Shield volcano, shield volcano on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the List of U.S. states by elevation, highest point in Hawaii a ...

mountain on

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

's Big Island at an altitude of 4,204 meters (13,793 feet), part of the Mauna Kea Observatory. Operational since 1979, the telescope is a Prime Focus/ Cassegrain configuration with a usable aperture diameter of . CFHT is currently considering a refurbishment to the facility in the 2020s. The facility would be reconstructed with a new 11-meter telescope to produce the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer, retaining the same base building and infrastructure. First light is expected no earlier than 2029.

Funding

The corporation is bound by a tripartite agreement between the

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the National Research Council (NRC) in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and the

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

(CNRS) in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. CFHT also has partnerships with the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC), the

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...

Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, the National Laboratory of Astrophysics (LNA) in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) in

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

. The contributions from these associate partners help fund CFHT's future instrumentation. Currently, CFHT observing time is offered to scientists from all the seven countries in the partnership. Astronomers from the European Union can also submit proposals through the

Optical Infrared Coordination Network for Astronomy Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultravio ...

(OPTICON) access program.

Instruments

CFHT currently operates five instruments: * MegaPrime/MegaCam, a one- square-degree field high-resolution CCD mosaic of 40 CCDs totalling 378

megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

s * WIRCam (Wide-Field Infrared Camera), an infrared mosaic of 4 detectors totalling 16 megapixels, optimized for the J, H, and K spectral bands * ESPaDOnS (Echelle SpectroPolarimetric Device for the Observation of Stars at CFHT), an echelle

spectrograph An optical spectrometer (spectrophotometer, spectrograph or spectroscope) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify mate ...

/spectropolarimeter * SITELLE (Spectromètre Imageur à Transformée de Fourier pour l'Etude en Long et en Large de raies d'Emission), a wide-field Fourier transform spectrograph * SPIRou (Spectropolarimètre Infrarouge), a near-infrared spectropolarimeter

Notable discoveries

In March 2025, astronomers using the CFHT announced the discovery of 128 new

moons of Saturn The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets only tens of meters across to the enormous Titan (moon), Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury (planet), Mercury. There are 274 natural satellite, moons with con ...

, bringing the gas giant's total number of confirmed satellites to 274.

Outreach

CFHT, in collaboration with Coelum Astronomia, maintains a public-outreach website called "Hawaiian Starlight" which offers extremely high-quality versions of CFHT images in various formats including a yearly calendar.

Gallery

References

External links

The Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Corporation
(official site)
Hawaiian Starlight

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)

National Astronomical Observatories of China (China)

ACADEMIA SINICA Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Taiwan)

Laboratório Nacional de Astrofisica (Brazil)

Korean Space Science Institute (Korea)

Coelum Astronomia

Optical Infrared Coordination Network for Astronomy (OPTICON)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Reflecting telescopes Astronomical observatories in Hawaii Buildings and structures in Hawaii County, Hawaii 1979 establishments in Hawaii