Observatories

On Saturday morning we met at the bottom of the mountain in Vicuna at 9 a.m.  Our goal for the day was to visit Cerro Tololo, the monstrous telescopes that sit at 7200 feet.

At the mountain base we were given instructions about the drive up.  We were cautioned about the twists and turns as well as the steep drop offs.  We were shown pictures of cars that had plummeted to their doom.  We began the half hour drive up the well maintained road that went back and forth and up, up, up.  At certain points the view of the Andes mountains were spectacular.

As we neared the top of the mountain we had a good view of the collection of telescopes.When we reached our destination and got out of the truck I was glad I had worn my sweater and jacket.  It was cool but also very windy.  We were with a tour group of about 25.  We had a bit of time to walk around the site.  Then we went into one of the observatories to see a 1.5 meter telescope.  This telescope began viewing the stars in 1967.

The tour was mostly in Spanish so I did not get all of the details about the telescope but I was amazed that they let this group of visitors right into the observatory.  We were advised not to touch the wires that ran along the outside and were able to watch as they maneuvered the telescope and open the doors.

Here is a picture of the four of us inside: Jen, Nicole, Brant, and Stacy (Brant's wife).

After visiting that first telescope we went over to the largest telescope.  From the outside it is pretty impressive looking.

This telescope is 4 meters and was installed in 1973.  At the time it was the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. 

It was amazing to me that they were able to get all of this big equipment up that road but everything was brought in by truck.

The telescopes here are operated by an association of universities.  Researchers come to the mountain and work 7 days on and then 7 days off.  Even though there are bigger telescopes in Chile now (12 meters and plans to build a 30 meter) these telescopes are still booked out years in advance.

It happen to be cloudy the day we were here but this region see clouds only a few days a year, making it perfect for telescopes.  It did clear up by the end of the day.