MundoAndino Home : Andes Chile Guide at Mundo Andino
La Silla Observatory
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, 27 km south of Las Campanas Observatory, and 100 km north of Cerro Tololo Observatory.
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 first 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.
External links
Official ESO - La Silla webpage
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Astronomical observatories in Chile or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article La Silla Observatory
