La Silla Observatory

La Silla Observatory An observing site of the European Southern Observatory, founded in 1964, at an altitude of 2350 m on La Silla mountain in the Atacama desert of Chile about 90 km northeast of La Serena. ESO's main optical instruments on La Silla are a 3.6-m reflector, opened in 1976; the 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT), opened in 1989; a 2.2-m reflector jointly owned by the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, opened 1984. A 1.52-m reflector, opened in 1968, was closed in 2002 and the ESO 1-m Schmidt, opened in 1972, was closed in 1998. Instruments at La Silla owned by individual nations include a Danish 1.54-m reflector opened in 1979; a 1.2-m reflector owned by Geneva Observatory, opened 2000; and a 1-m reflector owned by Marseille Observatory, opened 1996. La Silla was also the site of the 15-m Swedish–ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST), opened in 1987 but closed in 2003. http://www.ls.eso.org/index.html