Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2024

12 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2024 ASTRO PUBLISHING ing of the Universe, and to partici- pate in daytime guided tours and nighttime stargazing programs. To celebrate this momentous occa- sion, daytime tours and nighttime observing programs were offered to the public at discounted rates for the day, matching those offered 60 years ago in 1964. Kitt Peak National Observatory was founded in 1958 and is home to one of the largest collections of optical and radio telescopes in the world. The observatory’s location high atop a magnificent sky island in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson, Ari- zona was carefully chosen to enable its telescopes’ missions to study the Sun and night sky. The land was leased by tribal elders of the To- hono O’odham Nation, which owns the land. As such, the relationship between KPNO and the Nation has been a focal point of KPVC since its Kitt Peak Visitor Center marks 60 years K itt Peak Visitor Center (KPVC) is the public’s gateway to the groundbreaking science being conducted at the U.S. National Sci- ence Foundation Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Over the past six decades, more than two million visi- tors have joined in KPVC programs to learn about Kitt Peak’s suite of world-class telescopes and their con- tribution to humanity’s understand- by NOIRLab − Josie Fenske