<p>It's trivial to find the list of largest optical telescopes by aperture size. What I'm interested in is the largest optical telescope in the world, regardless of ownership or origin (amateur or professional/commercial), that is not purposefully located at a high elevation.</p>
<p>For obvious reasons, the largest telescopes are built at high elevations to minimize atmospheric effects; I'm curious as to the largest telescope that is not specifically built in this manner. I suspect it is of amateur provenance. Thank you!</p>
<p>Edit: The metric for the ordering is the one suggested by ProfRob in the comments: Aperture * (1/Altitude).</p>
<p>Also, the answer seems to be the UBC Liquid-Mirror Observatory, but as it's exotic and apparently defunct, we can see what other answers there are.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-03-27T19:40:01.503Z
You're probably going to have to specify what you mean by "high elevation".
Peter Erwin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-03-27T20:57:40.693Z
A lot of university observatories are built on relatively flat ground. Like, Harvard has an observatory on campus, and it's only at like 80 feet ASL 'cause that's where Harvard is.  Even if they're placed outside the city to get away from the lights, they often aren't on mountains.  Like Rosemary Hill Observatory (U. of Florida) is, let's face it, in Florida, so it's probably not surprising that it's pretty much at the same altitude as the rest of the state.
Darth Pseudonym
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2024-03-28T07:39:34.570Z
You need to define your metric more precisely. Is it aperture multiplied by 1/altitude ?
ProfRob
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2024-03-28T14:54:16.837Z
There was an answer posted here that was deleted for some reason.
Chris
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2024-03-28T14:56:45.960Z
@petererwin you're right that I didn't even attempt to define high elevation, it seemed easier to leave it open to interpretation than try to force a legalese definition. The metric offered by ProfRob sounds like a good one. Although I think I found my answer: UBC Liquid-Mirror Observatory. But we can ignore it, since it's exotic and currently defunct as far as I can tell
Chris
<observational-astronomy><telescope><amateur-observing>
Largest Optical Telescope NOT at Higher Elevation
Chris
# Largest Optical Telescope NOT at Higher Elevation

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-03-27)

It's trivial to find the list of largest optical telescopes by aperture size. What I'm interested in is the largest optical telescope in the world, regardless of ownership or origin (amateur or professional/commercial), that is not purposefully located at a high elevation.

For obvious reasons, the largest telescopes are built at high elevations to minimize atmospheric effects; I'm curious as to the largest telescope that is not specifically built in this manner. I suspect it is of amateur provenance. Thank you!

Edit: The metric for the ordering is the one suggested by username_3 in the comments: Aperture \* (1/Altitude).

Also, the answer seems to be the UBC Liquid-Mirror Observatory, but as it's exotic and apparently defunct, we can see what other answers there are.

**Tags:** observational-astronomy, telescope, amateur-observing

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: You're probably going to have to specify what you mean by "high elevation".  
> **username_2**: A lot of university observatories are built on relatively flat ground. Like, Harvard has an observatory on campus, and it's only at like 80 feet ASL 'cause that's where Harvard is.  Even if they're placed outside the city to get away from the lights, they often aren't on mountains.  Like Rosemary Hill Observatory (U. of Florida) is, let's face it, in Florida, so it's probably not surprising that it's pretty much at the same altitude as the rest of the state.  
> **username_3**: You need to define your metric more precisely. Is it aperture multiplied by 1/altitude ?  
> **username_0**: There was an answer posted here that was deleted for some reason.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 you're right that I didn't even attempt to define high elevation, it seemed easier to leave it open to interpretation than try to force a legalese definition. The metric offered by username_3 sounds like a good one. Although I think I found my answer: UBC Liquid-Mirror Observatory. But we can ignore it, since it's exotic and currently defunct as far as I can tell  

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