Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

- 30.169166666667 - 70.8058333333332200Koordinaten: 30 ° 10 ' 9 " S, 70 ° 48' 21 " W

The Cerro Tololo Inter- American Observatory ( CTIO ) is a complex of astronomical telescopes and instruments at Cerro Tololo, about 80 km east of La Serena, Chile at an altitude of 2200 meters. The IAU code of the CTIO is 807

The complex is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory ( NOAO ), together with the Kitt Peak National Observatory ( KPNO ) in Tucson, Arizona.

Telescopes

The Observatory has a number of telescopes. The main instrument at Cerro Tololo is the

• 4 m Victor M. Blanco telescope. Instruments that are ready for this telescope are:

There are also some smaller telescopes, the so-called " Smarts ". Arranged according to the diameter of the main mirror, these are:

Also, it is home to the so-called Curtis Schmidt Telescope with an aperture of 61 cm.

On the 10 km from Cerro Pachon (coordinates: 30 ° 13 ' 0 " S, 70 ° 43 ' 0" W 30.216666666667 70.716666666667 - ) is the

• 4.1 m Southern Astrophysical Research ( SOAR ) telescope, and one of the two
• 8.1 m Gemini telescopes.

Research Projects

The Victor M. Blanco Telescope is the primary research instrument of the Dark Energy Survey, a project to study dark energy. First Light of DECam ( Dark Energy Camera) was on 12 September, 2012.