Editing WIYN Consortium (section)

'''WIYN Consortium''' founding members were the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] (W), [[Indiana University (Bloomington)|Indiana University]] (I), [[Yale University]] (Y), and the [[National Optical Astronomy Observatories]] (N). Yale University withdrew from the WIYN consortium on April 1, 2014, and was replaced by the [[University of Missouri]] in the fall of that year. In 2015, a NASA-NSF partnership called NN-EXPLORE effectively took over NOAO's share, although NOAO still manages the operations.<ref>WIYN.org: [http://www.wiyn.org/About/whatiswiyn.html WIYN Observatory Members], Retrieved February 22, 2020</ref> [[Purdue University]] joined in 2017 for a three-year period.<ref>Purdue.edu: [https://www.physics.purdue.edu/news/2016/2016-12-15-lee-wiyn-consortium.html Purdue Department Joins WIYN Consortium] December 15, 2016, Retrieved February 22, 2020</ref>

The [[consortium]] operates two [[telescope]]s of 3.5 m and 0.9 m diameters.

The universities financed the construction of the [[WIYN Observatory]] at [[Kitt Peak National Observatory]] (KPNO) in 1994.

In 2001, the WIYN Consortium took over control of the KPNO {{convert|36|in|mm|adj=on}} telescope, built in 1960, and [[baptism|rechristened]] it as the ''WIYN 0.9 m Telescope''.  This small but popular telescope was in danger of being [[mothball]]ed for budgetary reasons.