Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope

Research facility highlights

Credit: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope / 2003

The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is a joint facility of NRC, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France and the University of Hawaii. Its headquarters are in Waimea, Hawaii, and the observatory itself is located on the summit ridge of Mauna Kea, a 4,200-metre dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.

CFHT’s mission is to provide a versatile and state-of-the-art astronomical observing facility for its scientific and educational communities. It provides the capability for Canadian scientists, as well as scientists from France, Hawaii, Taiwan, Brazil, China and other countries, to conduct wide-field optical and infra-red imaging, as well as studies of stellar magnetism.

The observatory is exploring a highly ambitious project known as the “Next Generation CFHT,” which would involve upgrading to a much larger (10 m) telescope dedicated to wide-field multi-object spectroscopy

What we offer

CFHT saw its first light in 1979 and quickly established itself among the world-leading optical-infrared telescopes of that era. Today, the 3.6m CFHT remains at the forefront of ground-based astronomy, thanks to the quality of its site, its state-of-the-art instrumentation and the exceptional services offered by its dedicated staff.

Moving forward, CFHT will continue to add to its existing suite of instruments, ensuring that the observatory remains at the leading edge of astronomy. In the near term, SITELLE will provide an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer with a 15’ field of view.

Access and use

CFHT operates in a queued service mode in which dedicated staff handles all observations from the Waimea headquarters. The observations are queued with a priority based on peer review of the submitted proposals and then executed under the most suitable atmospheric conditions for each approved program. The aim is use the telescope in the most effective manner to achieve the desired scientific goals. The telescope is scheduled on a semester basis for ordinary proposals and semi-annual calls for proposals are issued. Through a special call for proposals, the Observatory also supports Large Programs requiring observing time that extends over several semesters.