SOAR's goal is to build and operate a new-generation, light-weight, computer controlled, four-meter telescope in the Southern hemisphere. This telescope will provide superb images. Located near La Serena on Cerro Pachon, on the westward side of the Chileian Andes, it will be the first high-resolution telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.
You can view a recent picture of the Cerro Pachon site.
See what some of the telescope design plans look like.
Or look at some of the detailed discussion of our engineering and science plans
Cerro Pachon will also be the site of the southern Gemini 8-m telescope (an international project between the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil). SOAR and Gemini will be comlementary telescopes, sharing instruments and staff, and MSU's participation in SOAR will provide good access to Gemini.
The Michigan astronomers in the SOAR project specialize in the Southern skys which cannot be seen from the Northern Hemisphere. One of the unique advantages of the SOAR telescope will be remote observing, bringing the clear skys of the Andes to cloudy Michigan, to MSU, to Abrams Planetarium, and other universities and public stations around the state.
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Susan Simkin (Simkin@grus.pa.msu.edu) last updated: 1 Jul '97