Organisation NOAO Built 1974, completed 1976 Collecting area 10.01 m² Wavelength optical Diameter 4.0 m | Altitude 2,207 m (7,241 ft) Enclosure spherical Telescope style reflector | |
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Mounting equatorial, Ritchey-Chrétien Website www.ctio.noao.edu/telescopes/4m/4m.html Organization National Optical Astronomy Observatory Location(s) | ||
The Víctor M. Blanco Telescope, also known as the Blanco 4m, is a 4-metre aperture telescope located at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile. Commissioned in 1974 and completed in 1976, this telescope is similar to the Mayall 4m telescope located on Kitt Peak. In 1995 it was dedicated and named in honour of Puerto Rican astronomer Víctor Manuel Blanco. It was the largest optical telescope in the Southern hemisphere from 1976 until 1998, when the first 8-metre telescope of the ESO Very Large Telescope opened.
Currently the main research instrument used at the telescope is the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), the camera used in the Dark Energy Survey. DECam saw its first light in September 2012.
References
Víctor M. Blanco Telescope Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA