Cerro Tololo is a mountain that reaches 2,200 meters a. s. l. and where the facilities of the Inter-American Observatory Cerro Tololo are found. It consists of seven domes, of which only five remain in operation. It has eight telescopes and a radio telescope. These are Víctor Blanco, the largest with a mirror four meters in diameter, the robotic telescope CATA 500 with a mirror 50 centimeters in diameter and six telescopes that have mirrors from 0.30 to 3 meters in diameter. The observatory is administered by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, AURA.
It is located in the Region of Coquimbo in the Elqui Valley in the province of Elqui. It is 88 km southeast of La Serena and 2,200 meters above sea level. 478 km north of Santiago.
By plane or car, starting point La Serena. Then by car take route Gabriela Mistral CH-41 and at km 87 take the detour to the Tololo Observatory by Route D-317.
The project began in 1962 and was concreted on November 7, 1967. There are currently about 175 people working at Tololo. Among its milestones are three US astronomers, Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess, who won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for their findings on accelerating the expansion of the Universe through their observations of supernovae. To make their discoveries between 1994 and 1998 they used the Víctor Blanco telescope.
One of the most modern Chilean telescopes is located in Cerro Tololo, the CATA 500. It belongs to University of Chile. It is robotically teleoperated, meaning it does not need a physical operator, which reduces the costs. This telescope is part of the international project "Glory", in which anyone can access from a computer or mobile device to observe the Universe. The system has 17 robotic tele- scopes installed in different countries that allow the view of the sky online thanks to this digital plat- form http://gloria-project.eu/en
Access free is with prior authorization from the central office located in La Serena where the tickets must be removed before going up. Telephone: +56 51205200 and web www.ctio.noao.edu. Registration for the e-mail tour: [email protected]
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