Founding of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the Andes of northern Chile, in the Coquimbo region, chosen for its dry air, dark skies and steady atmosphere. It was established by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, with US government funding, as the first major American observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, giving astronomers access to the southern sky and the centre of the Milky Way. Its largest instrument for many years was the 4-metre Blanco telescope, completed in the 1970s, which later hosted the Dark Energy Camera used to map galaxies and study cosmic acceleration. The observatory is now part of NSF NOIRLab and sits near other major Chilean facilities.

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