Beijing Astronomical Observatory

This article is about the post-Communist revolution observatory. For the Ming Dynasty to pre-World War II observatory that is no longer a functioning observatory, see Beijing Ancient Observatory. For the planetarium, see Beijing Planetarium. For the Chinese national observatory network headquartered in Beijing, see National Astronomical Observatory of China.

Beijing Astronomical Observatory

Location	Beijing, China
Coordinates
Altitude	960 metres
Established	1958

Beijing Astronomical Observatory (BAO) is an observatory located around 150 kilometres northeast of Beijing, China. It was founded in 1958 and is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The observatory comprises 5 observing stations. The principal observing site for optical and infrared is called Xinglong.

Facilities

Xinglong

The Xinglong observatory, situated at 960 metres above sea level, contains a 2.16-metre reflector telescope (China's largest), and a 1.26-m infrared telescope.

The planned "LAMOST", or Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope will be located there.

Miyun

There is also a radio astronomy site at Miyun. It comprises 28 dishes, each 9 metres in diametre. It is used for survey astronomy and is called the Metre-Wave Aperture Synthesis Radio Telescope or "MSRT".

External links

• National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences