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.
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.

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Trivia

External links

Trivia

It is located only 27 km south of Las Campanas Observatory, and 100 km north of Cerro Tololo Observatory, both distances measured in a straight line.

External links

★ Official ESO - La Silla webpage