The Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope is a modern optical and

near-infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those of ...

telescope located on Cerro Pachón,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

at elevation. It was commissioned in 2003, and is operated by a consortium including the countries of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

, 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 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. Partners have guaranteed shares varying from 10 to 30 percent of the observing time. The telescope uses active optics on its primary and secondary mirrors to attain median image quality 0.7 arcsec at a wavelength of 500 nm. Multiple instruments are available on standby, mounted at unusually high weight-capacity Nasmyth foci and two lower capacity bent- Cassegrain foci. Switching is accomplished within a few minutes by rotating the 45° tertiary mirror. The pointing of this mirror is adjusted at high speed to prevent image blur from vibrations induced by wind-shake of the telescope structure.

Overview

Its optical specifications are: * M1 total diameter 4300mm * Entrance Pupil Diameter 4100mm * Pupil central Obstruction 980mm * M1 working f/# 1.6855 (no prime focus is available) * Focal plane working f/# 16.625 * Effective Focal Length 68176.3mm * Gamma ratio (dZ(foc)/dZ(M2)) 100.5 * Zero-Vignetting Field Diameter 14.4arcmin * Focal Plane Radius of curvature 966.3mm * Sag w/r to Maximum Field 10.59mm

Instruments

Current (5/2014) instruments are: * UV–optical 16-million pixel imager (SOI, CTIO) * near-infrared (1–2.4 μm wavelength) 1-million pixel HgCdTe imager and spectrograph (OSIRIS, Ohio State University/CTIO) * UV–optical 16-million pixel imager and spectrograph (Goodman Spectrograph, UNC) * near-infrared (1–2.4 μm wavelength) 16-million pixel HgCdTe imager (SPARTAN, MSU) * adaptive optics module (SAM, CTIO) Additional facility instruments are being commissioned: * UV–optical 16-million pixel integral-field spectrograph (SIFS, Brazil) User instruments are employed by individual astronomers or teams but not available to all users. US astronomers access the telescope remotely over the Internet 2. 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 SOAR telescope dome is a $2 million, , weatherproof structure weighing over 70 tons.

Gallery

File:SOAR_Below_the_Milky_Way.jpg, File:Star_Trails_over_SOAR.jpg,

References

External links

SOAR home site

Brazil SOAR pages

MSU SOAR pages

UNC SOAR pages

Case History - Structural Adequacy of the Dome

Coordinates for Observatories on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachon
{{Portal bar, Chile, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science, Technology Reflecting telescopes Michigan State University University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Astronomical observatories in Chile Buildings and structures in Coquimbo Region 2003 establishments in Chile NOIRLab

Overview

Instruments

Gallery

See also

References

External links