 Post date: 2 months 3 weeks ago
Astronomers at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile hope to unlock secrets of our changing universe with the most powerful sky-mapping camera ever built. A five-year study beginning in December aims to discover some 300 million galaxies and 4,000 supernovae. |
 Post date: 4 months 3 weeks ago
Scientists in the international Dark Energy Survey collaboration announced this week that the Dark Energy Camera has achieved first light. The first pictures of the southern sky were taken by the 570-megapixel camera on Sept. 12, 2012. Image: A full DECam image of the Fornax cluster of galaxies, which lies about 60 million light years from Earth. The prominent galaxy in the lower right is the barred spiral galaxy NGC1365. For more information, see NOAO Press Release.
|
 Post date: 5 months 1 week ago
DECam's imager is visible for the last time (blue, left of center) before it is inserted into the instrument, meeting the optical corrector for the first time. Image credit: T. Abbott CTIO/NOAO/AURA. |
 Post date: 5 months 2 weeks ago
Patricio Schurter (CTIO) and Ken Schultz (Fermilab) install the filter changer and shutter assembly in DECam while Andrés Montané (CTIO) and Adam Sypniewski (Michigan) install BCAM fine alignment sensors in the telescope. Image credit: T. Abbott CTIO/NOAO/AURA. |
 Post date: 6 months 3 days ago
The Cassegrain cage of the V. M. Blanco telescope has been modified to carry 5.5 tons of lead to counterweight the new DECam installed on the prime focus. The DECam installation is nearing completion with first light expected near the end of September.
Image Credit: Timothy Abbott (CTIO/NOAO/AURA) |
 Post date: 7 months 1 week ago
This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic II camera on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo on Jan 12th and Feb 7th, 2012. An array of dark Bok globules, known as Thackeray's Globules, can be seen in silhouette against the emission nebula IC 2944 in the constellation Centaurus. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (yellow) filters. In this image, north is to the right, and east is up.Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and N.S. van der Bliek (NOAO/AURA/NSF)
|
 Post date: 9 months 6 days ago
On May 3, 2012 the new prime focus cage for DECam was installed. The assembly (or “Camera”) includes the cage, hexapod, cabling, optics, and (for now) dummy imager. |
 Post date: 9 months 3 weeks ago
Using NOAO facilities, astronomers from Lowell Observatory have acted as "stellar paparazzi", managing to identify hundreds of rare yellow and red supergiants in two neighboring galaxies. Shown is an image of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) galaxy with positions of the supergiant stars overlaid. The observations will provide strong constraints on the late evolution of massive stars, the progenitors of core-collapse supernovae (Image Credit: C. Smith, S. Points, the MCELS Team and NOAO/AURA/NSF). |
 Post date: 11 months 4 weeks ago
These images reveal light from a massive stellar outburst in the Carina Nebula reflecting off dust clouds, a phenomenon called a light echo. The image was taken by the U.S. NOAO’s Blanco 4-meter Telescope and Curtis-Schmidt Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. Credit: NASA, NOAO, N. Smith (U. Arizona) and A. Rest (STScI). |
 Post date: 1 year 2 weeks ago
On January 9 and 10, the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Dr. Subra Suresh visited NSF optical astronomy facilities in Northern Chile. |
 Post date: 1 year 1 month ago
The BRAVA fields are shown in this image montage. For reference, the center of the Milky Way is at coordinates L= 0, B=0. The regions observed are marked with colored circles. This montage includes the southern Milky Way all the way to the horizon, as seen from CTIO. The telescope in silhouette is the CTIO Blanco 4-m. |
 Post date: 1 year 2 months ago
The Nobel Prize committee announced that the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics has been won by three astronomers, for the discovery that the expansion of the Universe is speeding up. Both the Supernova Cosmology Project and High-Z Supernova Search team used the Blanco telescope between 1994 and 1998 for some of their most critical observations, CTIO staff members were members of the High-z team. |
 Post date: 1 year 4 months ago
A wide angle photograph of the V. M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. |
 Post date: 1 year 6 months ago
An interesting report of the MIlls expedition in the North of Chile during 1909 and onwards, written by H.D. Curtis |
 Post date: 1 year 6 months ago
Welcome to the new CTIO web site, after a lot of effort by David Walker and especially by Jackie Seron in transfering information from the old site to this new one, we are ready to go live internally. |
 Post date: 1 year 7 months ago
On the night of August 31 to September 1, 1931, while the fleet was in the port of Coquimbo, the sailors of the Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre mutinied, taking prisoners all the officers of the ship, who were kept confined in their cabins. The insurrection immediately spread to the rest of the fleet in Coquimbo, and all 14 units were soon in the hands of the sailors. |
 Post date: 1 year 9 months ago
April 16, 2011. The loop was closed on the laser guide star on April 15. |
 Post date: 1 year 10 months ago
The Bucaniers depart from the Port of Hilo, and sail unto that of Coquimbo. They are descryed before their arrival. Notwithstanding they land: are encountred by the Spaniards, and put them to flight. They take, plunder, and fire the City of la Serena. |
 Post date: 1 year 10 months ago
The Blanco 4-m telescope primary mirror, cleaned of its old coating of aluminum prior to installation in the vacuum chamber used to apply a new coating. |
 Post date: 1 year 10 months ago
NOAO is proud to host a two-day community workshop on the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), on 18-19 August 2011. |
 Post date: 1 year 11 months ago
“First Blast”, detonated on the El Peñón summit March 8th at 8:56:00 (MST) in preparation for the LSST. |
 Post date: 2 years 5 days ago
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope gets Top Ranking, "a Treasure Trove of Discovery" In a report released this morning. |
 Post date: 2 years 5 days ago
The Allsky camera is back, it was installed on Wednesday the 10th of November 2010, but officially went online on the 18th after some testing. |