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Present

• Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, operated by Cornell University: A 300-m dish.
• GBT (Green Bank Telescope): Two-acre dish in WV; Started operating in Aug, 2000.
• Haystack: MIT observatory using a 37-m radio telescope operating at wavelengths from 2.6 mm to 1.3 cm.
• HHT (Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope): Started operation in January 2000, looking at terahertz frequencies.
• HALCA (Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry): NASA program launched in 1996.
• VLA (NRAO's Very Large Array): 27 antennas in a Y pattern 22 miles across in New Mexico.

Future

• SKA (Square Kilometre Array): The largest telescope, an array of 30 interferometric stations, planned by a collaboration of different countries, will come into operation in the middle of the next decade (SFN article).
• Ideas: Space-based, lightweight inflatable telescopes?

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Past

• COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer): NASA mission launched in November 1989, to map the cosmic microwave background spectrum in different directions; led to the 1992 first discovery of fluctuations.

Present

• Archeops: A balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the temperature fluctuations of the CMB on a large region of the sky (about 30%) with a high angular resolution (10 arcminutes) and a high sensitivity.
• Boomerang: Maps the cosmic microwave background (CMB) using a balloon-borne telescope that circumnavigates Antarctica; a Canada-Italy-UK-US collaboration.
• CBI (Cosmic Background Imager): An array of 13 antennas designed to measure variations in the cosmic microwave background radiation on angular scales from 5 arc minutes to one degree, located at an altitude of 5000 meters near San Pedro de Atacama, in northern Chile.
• DASI (Degree Angular Scale Interferometer): A US experiment based at the South Pole, consisting of a 13-element interferometer designed to measure anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation over a large range of scales with very high sensitivity.
• JCMT (James Clerk Maxwell Telescope): The largest astronomical telescope designed specifically to operate at submillimeter wavelengths; Used to study the Solar System, interstellar dust and gas, and distant galaxies; Situated on Mauna Kea at an altitude of 4092 m.
• MAP (Microwave Anisotropy Probe): NASA mission, launched in June 2001 to measure differences in different directions (anisotropies) in the cosmic microwave background radiation (overview article); more sensitive than previous missions, will also measure polarization, and cover the whole sky (BBC launch article).
• Maxima (Millimeter Anisotropy eXperiment Imaging Array): A US balloon experiment.
• SWAS (Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite): In orbit 400 miles above the Earth's surface; Launched in 1998, operated by NASA with collaboration from several other institutions.

Future

• Planck: ESA mission scheduled for launch in 2007 together with FIRST, to study the origin and evolution of the Universe by observing the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (0001, 0106 articles).
• South Pole Telescope: An 8-m array of 1,000 bolometers, that will be located at the National Science Foundation's South Pole Station, to take advantage of Antarctica's clear, dry skies; its scientific goal will be to understand the nature of dark energy.
• VSA (Very Small Array): A project to make images of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation on angular scales around one degree.

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Past

• IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite): A 0.6 m telescope placed in orbit at 30 km in 1983, operated for 10 months.
• ISO (Infrared Space Observatory): Launched in 1995, operated until May 1998; so far (2001) the best infrared space telescope astronomers have ever had: could have detected a 1-cm thick ice cube at a distance of 1000 km, solely by its heat emission.
• KAO (NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory): A 0.9-m reflector mounted on an airplane, retired from service in 1995.

Present

• ADONIS (ADaptive Optics Near Infrared System): An instrument, mounted at the European Southern Observatory 3.6-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile.
• GEMINI: Twin 8.1-m telescopes, GEMINI North at Mauna Kea in Hawaii and GEMINI South at Cerro Pachón in Chile.
• INGRID (Isaac Newton Group Red Imaging Device).
• IRTF (NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility): A 3.0 m telescope on Mauna Kea.
• Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as Space Infrared Telescope Facility): Part of NASA Origins Program; launched in August 2003, cooled with liquid helium to a few degrees above 0 K, and placed in an Earth-trailing orbit (Caltech site).
• UKIRT (United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope): A 3.8 m telescope on Mauna Kea, the world's largest telescope dedicated solely to infrared astronomy.
• WIRE (NASA's Wide Field Infrared Explorer) (Caltech site).
• 2MASS (Two-Micron All-Sky Survey) (UMass site).

Future

• FIRST (ESA's Far Infra-Red and Submillimetre Telescope): Scheduled for launch on February 15, 2007 together with Planck; Renamed the Herschel Space Observatory.
• Herschel: ESA's infrared space observatory, due for launch in 2007; will chart the formation rate of stars throughout cosmic history.
• SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy): A 2.5-meter reflecting infrared telescope, mounted inside a modified Boeing 747-SP aircraft; expected to fly into the stratosphere, at an altitude of 12,500 meters, open the telescope cavity door, and point its telescope at the heavens 3-4 nights a week for at least twenty years, starting in 2004.

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Past

• IUE (International Ultraviolet Explorer): Launched in 1978, for wavelengths in the range 1200­3200 Å, was turned off in 1996.
• EUVE (Extreme UV Explorer): Launched in 1992, shut down in Jan 2001. Showed that the interstellar medium contains regions of ionized gases and is more transparent to UV radiation than what most scientists and astronomers expected. It detected more than 1000 sources, using wavelengths in the range 80­800 Å.

Present

• CHIPS (Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer): NASA satellite, launched in Jan 2003; will collect the first extreme ultraviolet spectra of truly diffuse emission from interstellar plasma and study the Local Bubble.
• HETE-2 (High Energy Transient Explorer): Built by a US/Japan/France/Italy collaboration led by MIT; Launched in October 2000 for UV, X-ray and gamma ray observation; in particular, to look for gamma ray bursts.
• FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer): Launched in 1999 on a 3-year mission, 800­1200 Å (9906 and 0106 articles).
• Galex (Galaxy Evolution Explorer): NASA imaging and spectroscopic survey mission launched in April 2003, designed to map the global history and probe star formation and evolution over the redshift range 0 < z < 2 (80% of the history of the universe).

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Past

• HEAO-1: NASA X-ray orbiting telescope (Aug 1977 - Jan 1979).
• HEAO-2 (Einstein Satellite): NASA X-ray orbiting telescope (Nov 1978 - Apr 1981).
• ROSAT (Roentgen Satellite): Jun 1990 - Feb 1999.
• ASCA (Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics): Japanese/US orbiting X-ray telescope, launched in 1993; did not recover from historically big solar flare on July 14, 2000.
• Astro-E: NASA spacecraft launched in Feb 2000, but lost almost right away.
• BeppoSAX: Italian space agency X-ray satellite, that cracked the mystery of gamma-ray bursts by pinning down their locations on the sky well enough for astronomers to find their faint, visible-light afterglows; Deactivated in 2002, deorbited in 2003.

Present

• Chandra: NASA's orbiting X-ray telescope, launched in July 1999 by the space shuttle Columbia; 8-m long, with 1/2 arc-second resolution, on an oval orbit extending one-third of the way to the Moon (can't be reached by astronauts); looks at quasars, black holes, supernovas, pulsars, and intergalactic plasmas. (Harvard site, NYT site, current location.)
• Constellation X: A team of X-ray telescopes that will orbit close to each other in space, with emphasis on high throughput, high resolution spectroscopic observations of selected cosmic X-ray sources.
• EXIST (Energetic X-ray Imaging Space Telescope): For hard X-ray all-sky survey.
• HETE-2 (High Energy Transient Explorer): Built by a US/Japan/France/Italy collaboration led by MIT; Launched in October 2000 and operational from Feb 2001, for UV and X-ray and gamma ray observation; in particular, to look for gamma ray bursts.
• MAXIM (Milli-Arcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission): NASA mission with emphasis on very high resolution imaging observations of cosmic X-ray sources (NASA article).
• RXTE (Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer): NASA X-ray satellite launched in 1995.
• XMM-Newton (X-Ray Multi-Mirror Mission): ESA's orbiting X-ray telescope.
• X-Ray Interferometry from the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy at the University of Colorado.

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Past

• CGRO (Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, 1991-2000): Carried the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE), and the Energetic Gamma Ray Telescope Experiment (EGRET). Among many achievements, mapped the Milky Way using gamma rays from ²⁶Al.

Present

• NASA's gamma ray astrophysics program.
• CANGAROO (Collaboration of Australia and Nippon for a GAmma Ray Observatory
  in the Outback): A project with various telescopes, in operation since 1992: Review article.
• HESS (High Energy Stereoscopic System): A ground-based array of Cerenkov telescopes deployed in Namibia by a European/African collaboration; looks for gamma rays produced by the most energetic particles in the Universe (images).
• HETE-2 (High Energy Transient Explorer): Built by a US/Japan/France/Italy collaboration led by MIT; Launched in Oct 2000 and operational from Feb 2001, for UV and X-ray and gamma ray observation; in particular, for gamma-ray burst position determination.
• INTEGRAL (ESA's INTErnational Gamma Ray Astrophysical Laboratory): Launched in October 2002, for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy.
• MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov, en español): A very large atmospheric imaging Cherenkov telescope on the Canary island of La Palma, with a mirror surface of more than 230 m², to detect cosmic g-rays at energies lower than any other terrestrial g-ray telescope.
• STACEE in New Mexico.

Future

• AGILE (Astrorivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero): Italian space agency mission, scheduled to be operational in the years 2003-2006.
• GLAST (NASA's Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope): Scheduled for launch in 2006, for high-throughput observations of high energy cosmic gamma-ray sources; designed for a lifetime of 5 years and a goal of 10, will start with a one-year survey of the gamma-ray sky.
• Swift (NASA's Gamma Ray Burst Explorer): Scheduled for launch in September 2003, for gamma-ray burst position determination (cosmiverse 03.2002 update).
• VERITAS: Ground-based, comprises 7 large-aperture (12-m diameter) Cherenkov telescopes, each equipped with an imaging camera; currently under construction in 2003.

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Cosmic Ray and Neutrino Telescopes

• Antares (Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch): An under water neutrino telescope.
• AMANDA (Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array): A neutrino telescope near the South Pole, which looks downward - through the Earth - for arriving muons from the northern hemisphere, using strings of photomultiplier tubes lowered up to 2 kilometers into the ice.
• ARGO-YBJ (Astrophysical Radiation with Ground-based Observatory at Yangbajing): A Chinese-Italian collaboration involving researchers from 14 different institutions; Located in remote mountain valley in Tibet at an altitude of 14,000 feet, started operation in 2001.
• BESS (Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer): A US-Japanese detector on a balloon which has flown nearly every summer since 1993 searching for evidence of an antimatter domain within our Universe.
• IceCube: A project for a detector like AMANDA but much larger, having an effective volume of 1 cubic kilometer below the South Pole Station, consisting of 4,800 PMTs on 80 strings.
• Pierre Auger Project: A cosmic ray shower detector being built over twelve hundred square miles of pampa in Argentina.
• Telescope Array Project: A cosmic ray shower detector being built in Utah. The cosmic rays are observed at three fluorescence sites and a separate ground array consisting of 576 detectors.
• SNO (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory).

Search for Antimatter

• NASA's BESS (Balloon-borne Experiment with a Superconducting Spectrometer).
• AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer), to be installed in the International Space Station in 2005.