With its 9.2-meter (433-inch) mirror, the HET is one of the world's largest optical telescopes. It uses spectroscopy to search for planets, and studying distant galaxies, exploding stars, and black holes. The HET, dedicated in 1997, is a joint project of The University of Texas at Austin, The Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Click and drag within the image to pan around or up and down.  Use your Control key and shift keys to zoom in an out of the image.