Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at 4,204 m (13,790 ft).

Research observatory · Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is a research observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope is about 8 km (5 mi) from Mauna Kea, a Bortle Class 2 dark sky place.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in brief

Open to the public
No regular public access
Elevation
4,204 m (13,790 ft)
Bortle class
Not yet rated
Observes in
Optical, infrared
Part of
Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO)

Official site

Can you visit Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope? No regular public access

No public summit access; occasional resident tours via Kama'aina Observatory Experience.

For telescope views near Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, see the observatories open to the public and astronomy clubs nearby; clubs hold free public star parties.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope

Telescopes at Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope: optical, infrared

3.58m telescope.

new 11m MSE telescope in 2029

Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO): 11 observatories on one site

How dark the sky is at Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope has no Bortle rating in the list yet. The scale below shows what each class looks like.

1 mag 8.0 21.99+ 2 mag 7.5 21.89+ 3 mag 7.0 21.69+ 4 mag 6.5 20.49+ 5 mag 6.0 19.50+ 6 mag 5.5 18.94+ 7 mag 5.0 18.38+ 8 mag 4.5 18.00+ 9 mag 4.0
The Bortle scale. Each panel shows the class number, the faintest star the naked eye reaches at the zenith, and the darkest-edge sky brightness reading of that class in mag/arcsec².

Sky brightness and class come from the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness (Falchi et al. 2016, CC BY-NC 4.0), with natural skyglow added, at the coordinates below. Research telescopes are often sited on mountains above the haze, so the real sky can be darker than the map suggests.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope among the observatories of Hawaii

Ha'ena State Park Haleakala National Park Hanauma Bay Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Kalahaku Overlook Kau Forest Reserve Kaumahina State Wayside Koke'e State Park Manuka State Wayside Mauna Kea Na Pali-Kona Forest Reserve Pala'au State Park Polihale State Park Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Wai'anapanapa State Park Wailua Valley State Wayside Waimea Canyon State Park Mauna Loa Observatory Leeward College Observatory KEASA Observatory Gemini North Observatory Subaru Telescope James Clerk Maxwell Telescope NASA Infrared Telescope Submillimeter Array Very Long Baseline Array - Mauna Kea Station UH 2.2m Telescope Thirty Meter Telescope (proposed) Pan-STARRS Faulkes Telescope North (LCO 2m) Inouye Solar Telescope Advanced Electro-Optical System Mees Solar Observatory Solar-C Telescope Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (proposed) Haleakala Observatory ATLAS Haleakala Tohoku Telescopes W. M. Keck Observatory Lanihuli Observatory Maunakea Observatories Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Mauna Kea, Hawaii Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Mauna Kea, Hawaii
Dark sky place Research or private observatory Observatory open to the public

Green dots are observatories open to the public, blue dots research or private sites, squares dark sky places; select one for its page. See Hawaii observatories for the full list.

The coordinates on this page point to CFHT dome (IRTF survey list): 19.825°N, 155.469°W.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Open the larger map · Directions. Mountain observatory roads are often gated after dark; go only on a scheduled public night.

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope is about 8 km (5 mi) from Mauna Kea, a Bortle Class 2 dark sky place. See Mauna Kea for camping, where to set up and the sky by season.

Nearest dark sky places

PlaceWhereBortleDistance
Mauna KeaHawaii27 km (5 mi)
Hawaii Volcanoes National ParkHawaii549 km (30 mi)
Kau Forest ReserveHawaii268 km (42 mi)
Manuka State WaysideHawaii188 km (55 mi)
Wai'anapanapa State ParkHawaii2120 km (74 mi)
Haleakala National ParkHawaii2128 km (80 mi)

Other observatories open to the public within 150 km

  • Maunakea ObservatoriesMauna Kea, Hawaii, 0 km (0 mi). Maunakea Visitor Information Station (2,800 m) hosts monthly reservation stargazing events; summit domes closed to public except resident KOE tours
  • W. M. Keck ObservatoryMaunakea, Hawaii Island, Hawaii, 1 km (0 mi). Summit Visitors' Gallery inside Keck I open daily 10 am-2:30 pm (4WD above 9,200 ft); no night viewing; headquarters in Waimea

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in Hawaii puts the dark sky places, observatories, clubs, star parties, planetariums and science centers of the state on one map, with the best night out worked out.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope record

Every value in the observatories dataset for Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
ID251
NameCanada-France-Hawaii Telescope
AcronymCFHT
Addresssummit
CityMauna Kea
StateHI
CountryUSA
Webhttps://www.cfht.hawaii.edu
Publicn
Jobshttps://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/en/about/employment.php
Githttps://github.com/CFHT
Telescope3.58m telescope
ComplexMauna Kea Observatories (MKO)
Notesnew 11m MSE telescope in 2029
Elevation4204
Opticaly
IRy
Lat19.82525
Lon-155.46888
LatLonSpotCFHT dome (IRTF survey list)
StatusActive
StatusNoteProposed MSE upgrade would replace it
PublicNoteNo public summit access; occasional resident tours via Kama'aina Observatory Experience
Sourceshttps://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/IRrefdata/telescope_ref_data.php
ParkID195
ParkKm7.5

From the site's observatories dataset (observatories_q426). Distances are computed from the coordinates.