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The Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT French: Télescope Canada–France–Hawaï) is a 3.58 metres (11.7 ft) optical/infrared telescope located near the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi at an altitude of 4,204 m (13,793 ft), within the Mauna Kea Observatories. The telescope has a Prime Focus/Cassegrain configuration, and has been in operation since 1979. [1]

CFHT had proposed redeveloping its summit facility into the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer, replacing the existing telescope with an 11.25 m (36.9 ft) segmented telescope while reusing much of the existing observatory infrastructure, including the foundation, telescope pier, and portions of the support building.[2] As of 2026, however, the project remains on hold pending review of governance and leasing of observatories at this site. In the interim, the existing telescope will remain operating into the 2030s.[3]

Funding

The corporation is bound by a tripartite agreement between the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in the United States, the National Research Council (NRC) in Canada and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France. CFHT also has partnerships with the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC), the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) in Taiwan, the National Laboratory of Astrophysics (LNA) in Brazil and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) in Korea. 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 (OPTICON) access program.

Instruments

CFHT currently operates five instruments:

  • MegaPrime/MegaCam,[4] a one-square-degree field high-resolution CCD mosaic of 40 CCDs totalling 378 megapixels
  • WIRCam (Wide-Field Infrared Camera),[5] an infrared mosaic of 4 detectors totalling 16 megapixels, optimized for the J, H, and K spectral bands[6]
  • ESPaDOnS (Echelle SpectroPolarimetric Device for the Observation of Stars at CFHT),[7] an echelle spectrograph/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[8]
  • SPIRou (Spectropolarimètre Infrarouge), a near-infrared spectropolarimeter[9]

Notable discoveries

In March 2025, astronomers using the CFHT announced the discovery of 128 new moons of Saturn, bringing the gas giant’s total number of confirmed satellites to 274.[10][11]

Outreach

CFHT, in collaboration with Coelum Astronomia, maintains a public-outreach website called “Hawaiian Starlight”[12] which offers extremely high-quality versions of CFHT images in various formats including a yearly calendar.

CFHT with moon in the background
CFHT in the morning
The telescope in August 2002
Dark matter map from 2012 by CFHT Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS).[13][14] The central colour inset shows the previous largest COSMOS dark matter map

See also

References

  1. ^ National Research Council Canada. “Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope research and development”. Government of Canada. National Research Council Canada. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  2. ^ Bauman, Steven E.; Barrick, Greg; Benedict, Tom; Bilbao, Armando; Hill, Alexis; Flagey, Nicolas; Elizares, Casey; Gedig, Mike; Green, Greg; Grigel, Eric; Lo, David; Look, Ivan; Lorentz, Thomas; Loewen, Nathan; Manuel, Eric; McConnachie, Alan; Muller, Ronny; Murga, Gaizka; Murowinski, Rick; Ruan, Federico; Salmon, Derrick; Szeto, Kei; Teran, Jose; Urrutia, Rafael (10 July 2018). “Transforming the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) into the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE): A Conceptual Observatory Building and Facilities Design”. Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems VII. Proceedings of SPIE. Vol. 10704. SPIE. pp. 107041E. arXiv:1807.08044. doi:10.1117/12.2311350.
  3. ^ Board of Directors (16 December 2024). “Board Recommendation”. Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer. Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Corporation. Retrieved 16 June 2026.
  4. ^ MegaCam paper on ADS
  5. ^ WIRCam paper on ADS
  6. ^ “Relay optics to correct telescope aberrations and widen the usual field-of-view”. Archived from the original on 2012-07-31. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  7. ^ ESPaDOnS paper on ADS
  8. ^ “SITELLE Home Page”. www.cfht.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  9. ^ “SPIRou homepage”. www.cfht.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  10. ^ “2025 Discovery of more Saturnian Moons”. The University of British Columbia. The University of British Columbia. 11 March 2025. Retrieved 12 March 2025.
  11. ^ “Saturn has 128 new moons – more than the rest of the planets combined”. New Scientist. New Scientist. 11 March 2025. Retrieved 12 March 2025.
  12. ^ “Hawaiian Starlight Film – Exploring the Universe from Mauna Kea – CFHT’s Official Site”. www.cfht.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
  13. ^ Heymans, Catherine; Van Waerbeke, Ludovic; Miller, Lance; Erben, Thomas; Hildebrandt, Hendrik; Hoekstra, Henk; Kitching, Thomas D.; Mellier, Yannick; Simon, Patrick; Bonnett, Christopher; Coupon, Jean (2012-11-21). “CFHTLenS: the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey: CFHTLenS”. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 427 (1): 146–166. arXiv:1210.0032. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21952.x. S2CID 24731530.
  14. ^ “News CFHT – Astronomers reach new frontiers of dark matter”. www.cfht.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-26.