Science

Its design to work from the atmospheric cut-off in the blue (320nm) to the near infrared and excellent image quality (0.22 arcseconds), coupled with several simultaneous on-line instruments and rapid response capability make SOAR a very competitive telescope even in the age of 8 to 10 meter telescopes. The first light instruments were designed to allow optical and near-infrared imaging and mid to low resolution spectroscopy, with the possibility of changing from instrument to instrument in a few minutes.

SOAR Instrumentation

For detailed information on any of the SOAR instruments go to: here

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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.