Astronomical Observatories

*** INSTALLATION OF FREE ADD-ON MODELS OF THESE OBSERVATORIES IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED *** Telescopes have been helping people to observe and understand the universe since Galileo first used a small telescope to discover the four largest moons of Jupiter in 1610. Since that time, as astronomical knowledge has grown and as optical and mechanical technologies have improved, telescopes have gotten ever bigger and more sophisticated. To reduce the light-distorting effects of the atmosphere, large optical telescopes are normally constructed on high mountains, and many of these installations are complex and large enough to appear as buildings in Microsoft Flight Simulator, and and to be identified as points of interest in Bushtalk Radio. A few ambitious add-on makers have created more detailed and realistic models of major observatories, including a few radio telescopes. We recommend that you install some or all of these beautiful add-ons linked below to better explore the instruments that help us explore the universe. There may be others available too (a few observatories are included as standard in MSFS). Some locations may hold multiple observatory add-ons, such as Mauna Kea in Hawaii which is also the site of the in-work Thirty Meter Telescope for which an add-on by droide already exists. Use the the add-on locator feature (blue icon) for each observatory POI to identify nearby add-ons. Highly detailed models of many observatories have been created as add-ons by "droide:" https://flightsim.to/profile/droide/uploads Huge radio telescope array in New Mexico: https://flightsim.to/file/4659/vla-very-large-array-radiotelescope Another huge array in northern Chile: https://flightsim.to/download/alma-atacama-large-millimeter-array-radiotelescope/4439