04.11.15 / Cerro Tololo, Chile

My first visit to Cerro Tololo today. From the entrance-gates, a curvy road takes staff (the shuttle-bus “Carry-all” takes about 45 minutes) up on the mountain to an altitude of 2200 meters. There, various research facilities have telescopes set up specialized in numerous fields within astronomy. LCOGT (the ‘family’ of three domes in the very front) has 1-meter telescopes there deployed in October 2012. The name ‘Tololo’ comes from the Cacán-language of the Diaguitas and means ‘steep cliff’ (quite appropriate if you ask me…). The Diaguitas settled in the ‘Norte chico’ (“small north”)-region of Chile around the year 850 and, amongst others, created wonderful ceramics (the Museum of Archeology in La Serena is stunning). More from Tololo tomorrow!