Nearing Half a Century of the Blanco 4-Meter

The Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope had its first light in 1976 and will enter its 50th year of operation next year. Throughout this time, the Blanco 4-meter has witnessed the southern hemisphere’s ever-changing night sky from its mountainous perch at the U.S. National Science Foundation Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. It also experienced its own changes: in 1995, it was dedicated and named in honor of Puerto Rican astronomer Víctor Manuel Blanco.

Víctor Blanco became the second director of CTIO in 1967. In this role, he assembled the scientific, engineering, and technical staff at the observatory. He also began adding more and more telescopes to the observing site, forming it into the treasure trove of telescopes that it is today. Most notably, Blanco played a significant role in the development of the telescope that would later be named after him. He oversaw the alignment and calibration of the then-brand-new CTIO 4-meter telescope, the first telescope of its size in the southern hemisphere. 

Telescopes are not the only thing named after Víctor Blanco. Before he began his career at CTIO, he discovered an open star cluster in 1959, which was named Blanco 1 in his honor. 

This photo was taken as part of the NOIRLab 2022 Photo Expedition to all the NOIRLab sites. Petr Horálek, the photographer, is a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador.