Infrared Telescope Facility
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The Infra-Red Telescope Facility (IRTF) is a 3.0 meter telescope optimized for use in infrared astronomy and located at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawai'i. It was first built to support the Voyager missions and is now the USA National facility for infrared astronomy, providing continued support to planetary, solar neighborhood, and deep space applications. According to the IRTF's time allocation rules, at least 50% of the observing time is devoted to planetary science. This is quite unusual for a telescope of this size.