The telescope has been used successfully to find planets orbiting around other stars by measuring radial velocities as precisely as 1 m/s.

Using the low-resolution spectrograph, the telescope has been used to identify Type Ia supernovae to measure the acceleration of the universe.

The telescope mirrors are aligned within a fraction of a wavelength of visible light by actuators under each segment.

[2] As reported in Nature of 28 November 2012, astronomers have used the Hobby–Eberly Telescope to measure the mass of an extraordinarily large black hole (with mass approximates 17 billion Suns), possibly the largest black hole found so far.

It has been found in the compact, lenticular galaxy NGC 1277, which lies 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus.