Distant Telescopes of the Chilean Mountaintops

Looking south across 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the Andean mountains in Chile, several telescopes dot the peaks on the horizon. On top of Cerro Pachón (center background), from left to right, are the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope, the Gemini South telescope (one half of the International Gemini Observatory), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory. About 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) west is the mountain Cerro Tololo where the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope sits (far right in the image). Both peaks have telescopes that are part of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. This image was captured from the site of La Silla Observatory, operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The North Chile is home to a plethora of observatories all making the most of the dry desert climate, cloudless skies, and low light pollution. You can find a the complementary view of the La Silla Observatory from Cerro Pachón here and an annotated version of those photographs here.