7DT in Chile
El Sauce — the willow tree — sits in the Río Hurtado Valley just south of the great Chilean observatories, and shares their skies.
Río Hurtado Valley
El Sauce Observatory sits in the Rio Hurtado Valley of Chile at 30 deg 28 min 16 sec South, 70 deg 45 min 47 sec West, 1,600 m above sea level. It neighbors the sites of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Gemini South, the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and shares their sky conditions: typical seeing of about 1.5 arcseconds, more than 300 clear nights a year, and a mean zenith sky brightness of 21.97 mag per square arcsecond. Site infrastructure and maintenance are provided by ObsTech, a Chilean telescope hosting company.
Neighbouring facilities
- Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
- Gemini South Telescope
- Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope
- Vera C. Rubin Observatory
| Observatory | El Sauce, Río Hurtado Valley |
|---|---|
| Latitude | 30° 28′ 16″ S |
| Longitude | 70° 45′ 47″ W |
| Altitude | 1600 m |
| Median seeing | ≈ 1.5 arcsec |
| Clear nights | > 300 per year |
| Zenith sky brightness | 21.97 mag arcsec⁻² |
| Site operator | ObsTech |
Site preparation and pier foundations above the Río Hurtado Valley
Infrastructure
Site infrastructure, enclosures and on-site computing hardware are maintained by ObsTech, a Chilean telescope hosting company. The array is controlled from sixteen telescope control computers and a single main control computer housed at the site; data are handed to the Korean processing facility over KREONET each night.