Above the Cliffs at Cerro Pachón

The almost sheer cliffs of Cerro Pachón are surmounted by a trio of telescopes under an azure sky in this drone image. The three telescopes operated by NSF’s NOIRLab are, from the closest to the farthest, the SOAR telescope, Gemini South, and Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction. Once Rubin Observatory is complete it will scour the night sky using the largest digital camera ever fabricated for optical astronomy in an unprecedented, decade-long survey called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). By surveying the entire night sky every few nights, Rubin Observatory will revolutionize our study of the changing Universe, shedding light on everything from the nature of dark matter to the structure and formation of our Milky Way.

Rubin Observatory is a joint initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Department of Energy (DOE). Once completed, Rubin will be operated jointly by NSF’s NOIRLab and DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

This aerial photo was taken as part of the recent NOIRLab 2022 Photo Expedition to all the NOIRLab sites.