La Silla Observatory
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Altitude: | 2400m |
| Telescopes | |
| NTT (3.5 m): | Built and operated by ESO |
| 3.6 m: | Built and operated by ESO |
| 2.2 m: | Built and operated by ESO |
| ESO 1.5 m: | Built by ESO, now decommissioned |
| ESO 1 m: | Built by ESO, now decommissioned |
| ESO 0.5 m: | Built by ESO, now at the Observatorio UC in Santiago, Chile. |
| DENIS 1 m: | |
| MARLY 1 m (EROS project): | |
| Geneva 1.2 m: | |
| Danish 1.5 m: | |
| Danish 50 cm: | |
| Dutch 90 cm: | |
| SEST 15 m: | Built by ESO, now decommissioned |
| Marseille 40 cm: | |
| Bochum 61 cm: | |
| CAT 1.4 m: | Built by ESO, now decommissioned |
| IRIS: | |
| Schmidt 1 mm: | Built by ESO, now decommissioned |
| GPO: | Replaced by Marly 1 m |
La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with eighteen telescopes. Nine of these telescopes were built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) organisation, and several of the others are partly maintained by ESO. The observatory is one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.
La Silla is a 2400 m high mountain, bordering the southern extremity of the Atacama desert in Chile. It is located about 160 km north of La Serena. Its geographical coordinates are: latitude 29º 15.3' south and longitude 70º 44.3' west.
Originally known as Cinchado, the mountain was renamed La Silla (the saddle) after its shape. It rises quite isolated and remote from any artificial light and dust sources (astronomy's worst enemies). La Silla was the observatory in Chile used by ESO. Its history is full of optimism and disappointments, ups and downs, since its beginnings in the 1950's until the middle of the 1970's when the observatory became a reality.
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