Observing at SOAR

The SOAR Telescope is designed to carry a large instrument payload. An Instrument Support Box (ISB) at each Nasmyth focus can carry a cluster of three instruments with a total weight of up to 3000kg, and contains a shared Tip-Tilt guider and calibration unit. Two "Folded Cassegrain" ports on the elevation ring can each support an additional smaller instrument weighing up to 300kg. A third such port holds the Calibration Wavefront Sensor used to tune the Active Optical System. The system is designed to allow the observer to switch between instruments, several of which will be “science ready” at any time, within a few minutes. The tertiary mirror rotates to select the focal station in use while beam steering optics within each ISB direct the light to the chosen instrument.

Soar Telescope

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The Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope is a 4.1 meter aperture telescope designed to produce the best quality images of any observatory in its class in the world. It was funded by a a partnership between the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the country of Brazil, Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). SOAR is situated on Cerro Pachón at an altitude of 2,700 meters (8,775 feet) above sea level, at the western edge of the peaks of the Chilean Andes.