Largest Optical Telescopes
The biggest eyes to the sky since the 200-inch scope at Palomar.
| Largest Optical Telescopes of Today & Tomorrow | |
| Name and location | Primary-mirror aperture (meters) |
| European Extremely Large Telescope (proposed) | 42 |
| Thirty Meter Telescope (proposed) | 30 |
| Giant Magellan Telescope (proposed) Cerro Las Campanas, Chile | 24.5 |
| Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) La Palma, Canary Islands | 10.4 |
| Keck Telescopes Mauna Kea, Hawaii | 10.0 (×2) |
| Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) Sutherland, South Africa | 9.2 |
| Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) Mount Fowlkes, Texas | 9.2 |
| Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) Mount Graham, Arizona | 8.4 (×2) |
| Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) Cerro Pachón, Chile | 8.4 |
| Subaru Telescope, Mauna Kea, Hawaii | 8.2 |
| Very Large Telescope, Cerro Paranal, Chile | 8.2 (×4) |
| Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North Telescope Mauna Kea, Hawaii | 8.1 |
| Gemini South Telescope, Cerro Pachón, Chile | 8.1 |
| MMT Observatory, Mount Hopkins, Arizona | 6.5 |
| Walter Baade and Landon Clay Telescopes (Magellan), Cerro Las Campanas, Chile | 6.5 (×2) |
| Bolshoi Teleskop Azimultal'ny Mount Pastukhova, Russia | 6.0 |
| Large Zenith Telescope ( (liquid mirror) Maple Ridge, British Columbia | 6.0 |
| Hale Telescope, Palomar Mountain, California | 5.0 |
