Las Campanas Observatory is an astronomical

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

 observatory

Observatory

An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...

 owned and operated by the Carnegie Institution for Science

Carnegie Institution for Science

The Carnegie Institution for Science is an organization in the United States established to support scientific research....

 It was established in 1969 and remains the primary observing site of that institution. The headquarters is located in La Serena, Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 29.91041°S 71.24076°W and the observatory

Astronomy in Chile

Chile can be considered the capital of Astronomy in the world, nowadays it gathers 42% of Astronomy Infrastructure and by 2018 will concentrate the 70% of the global infrastructure of telescopes. In the north of the country, the skies are clean and dry for more than 300 days a year...

 is in the southern Atacama desert and about 100 km to the northeast of the city. The observatory is at an altitude of 2400 meters (7900 feet).

On February 24, 1987 at this observatory, Ian Shelton

Ian Shelton

Ian Keith Shelton is a Canadian astronomer famous for discovering SN 1987A, the first modern supernova close and bright enough to be visible to the naked eye.He received his B.Sc...

 and Oscar Duhalde became the first official observers of Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A

SN 1987A

SN 1987A was a supernova in the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy. It occurred approximately 51.4 kiloparsecs from Earth, approximately 168,000 light-years, close enough that it was visible to the naked eye. It could be seen from the Southern...

).

Telescopes

• Magellan Telescopes
  Magellan telescopes
  The Magellan Telescopes are a pair of 6.5 m diameter optical telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The two telescopes are named after the astronomer Walter Baade and the philanthropist Landon T...
  
   — Twin 6.5 m, christened Walter Baade
  Walter Baade
  Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade was a German astronomer who worked in the USA from 1931 to 1959.-Biography:He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during World War II, which reduced light pollution at Mount Wilson Observatory, to resolve stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy for the...
  
   and Landon Clay
  Landon T. Clay
  Landon T. Clay is an American businessman and founder of the Clay Institute.Clay graduated from Harvard in 1950 in English and was chair of Eaton Vance and a director of ADE Corporation.-References:...
  
  
• Du Pont Telescope — 2.5-meter (100-inch), named after Irénée du Pont
  Irénée du Pont
  Irénée du Pont was a U.S. businessman, former president of the DuPont company and head of the Du Pont trust.-Biography:A descendant of Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, he graduated from Andover in 1894 and MIT in 1897, then worked for Fenn’s Manufacturing Contracting Company for a number of years before...
  
   and in operation since 1977
• Swope Telescope — 1 m, named after Henrietta Swope
• Warsaw Telescope
  Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment
  The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment or OGLE is a Polish astronomical project based at the University of Warsaw that is chiefly concerned with discovering dark matter using the microlensing technique. Since the project began in 1992, it has discovered several extrasolar planets as a side...
  
   — 1.3 m, owned by Warsaw University
  University of Warsaw
  The University of Warsaw is the largest university in Poland and one of the most prestigious, ranked as best Polish university in 2010 and 2011...
  
   Observatory
• Giant Magellan Telescope
  Giant Magellan Telescope
  The Giant Magellan Telescope is a ground-based extremely large telescope planned for completion in 2018. It will consist of seven diameter primary segments, with the resolving power of a primary mirror and collecting area equivalent to one...
  
   (planned) — 24.5 m effective (seven 8.4 m segments)
• NANTEN Telescope (closed) — 4m millimeter-wavelength radio telescope, transported to Atacama desert, Chile.

Also located here are the small "Pi of the sky" wide-angle cameras that filmed the appearance of GRB 080319B

GRB 080319B

GRB 080319B was a remarkable gamma-ray burst detected by the Swift satellite at 06:12 UTC on March 19, 2008. The burst set a new record for the farthest object that could be seen with the naked eye; it had a peak apparent magnitude of 5.8 and remained visible to human eyes for approximately 30...

.http://grb.fuw.edu.pl/pi/ot/grb080319b/normal.html

External links

• Las Campanas Observatory
• Carnegie Institution for Science