Home KPNO Tours & Programs Daytime Tours

Daytime Tours

Kitt Peak is open all week - Book Your Daytime Visit Now!

Kitt Peak is very much alive during the daylight hours!

In addition to our evening tours, we offer a variety of daytime activities to enjoy:

Guided Daytime Tours

Each tour - led by one of our friendly and knowledgeable docents - visits one of Kitt Peak's iconic research telescopes. (Telescopes are occasionally closed to the public for maintenance. The Visitor Center does its best to alert visitors of any changes to the regularly scheduled tours.)

Spaces are limited to 25 guests per tour. Please reserve here in advance to guarantee a spot.

During the summer, the mountain is a great place to beat the desert heat.

Please read here about accessibility, directions and more.

Start time: See daily tour schedule, below

Duration: 1 hour

Strollers: Strollers are not permitted.

Advance reservation: Advance reservation is strongly recommended

Price:

1 Daytime tour (regular) $19.95
1 Daytime tour (discounted) $17.95: for seniors from age 62, groups of 8 persons or more, active duty military with ID, and students with ID. Tours are free for ASTC Members and family members residing in the same household (ASTC Membership card will be checked upon arrival).
Combo: Buy all 3 of our daytime tours for the discounted price of $50
Lunch (sandwich, chips, cookies and drink): May be added-on for an additional $9.50

Tohono O’odham Nation: This program is free to members of the Tohono O’odham nation (TON Tribal IDs will be checked upon arrival).

Daytime tour schedule:

McMath Pierce Solar Telescope: 10:00 am
Experience the inside and outside of the iconic McMath Pierce Solar Telescope — the largest solar telescope in the world for over 50 years. Soon to be the Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach funded by the National Science Foundation. The tour includes a Science on a Sphere audiovisual show called The Sun, Our Living Star.

KPNO 2.1-meter Telescope: 11:30 am
One of the earliest telescopes on Kitt Peak, and used by Vera Rubin to conduct landmark observations that established the existence of dark matter.

Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope: 1:30 pm
Tour the inside and outside of what used to be the second-largest telescope in the world when it was built. It is host to the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument built by the US Department of Energy, the most powerful multi-object survey spectrograph in the world.

Daytime Observing Program

Beat the heat! Beat the monsoon!**

(**While we can't guarantee this, most days on Kitt Peak are are roughly 15-20 ° F cooler than at the base of the mountain and in Tucson. Typically - but not always - we are less likely on summer days to see weather forecasts or situations that require us to cancel a tour than at night)

Each Daytime Observing Program - led by one of our friendly and knowledgeable guides - starts with lunch (sandwich, chips, cookies and drink) before we visit Kitt Peak's iconic Nicholas L Mayall telescope. (Telescopes are occasionally closed for maintenance. We do our best to alert visitors of any changes)

Following the research telescope tour, visitors will have the chance to see weather-permitting daytime views of bright objects in deep space and within our Solar System (yes, you actually can see those in the daytime) at one of our Visitor Center observatories, followed by safety-filtered weather-permitting views of flames and other details on the Sun.

In the event of clouds, an alternate program including hands-on astronomy demos and hands-on access to our meteorite collection will be offered. Along with the alternate program, a 2-year rain-check will be offered to return for another daytime or nighttime observing program at-no-additional-charge.

Spaces are limited to 24 guests per tour. Please reserve here in advance to guarantee a spot.

During the summer, the mountain is a great place to beat the desert heat.

Please read here about accessibility, directions and more.

Start time: 1pm daily until after Labor day 2024

Duration: 4 hours