The Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) is a modern 4.1-meter-aperture optical and near-infrared telescope located on Cerro Pachón, Chile at 2,738 meters elevation. It was commissioned in 2003, and is operated by a consortium including the countries of Brazil and Chile, Michigan State University, the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) (part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, NOAO), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The telescope attains median image quality 0.7 arcsec at 0.5 μm wavelength. Multiple instruments are available on standby, mounted at Nasmyth and bent-Cassegrain foci. Switching is accomplished within a few minutes by rotating the 45° tertiary mirror. This mirror is adjusted at high speed to prevent image blur from vibrations induced by wind-shake of the telescope structure.
Its optical specifications are:
Current (2/2011) instruments are:
Additional instruments are scheduled to be commissioned in 2011
US astronomers access the telescope remotely over the Abilene Network. Chilean and Brazilian astronomers use their high-speed networks. An on-site operator controls where the telescope points while the remote astronomer controls the instrument and data retrieval.
The $28 million dollar telescope produces images that rival the clarity of the Hubble Space Telescope. The SOAR telescope dome is a $2 million dollar, 66-foot-diameter (20 m), weatherproof structure weighing over 70 tons.[2]
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