About DAS

Our Department has played a key role in attracting foreign astronomical investment to the north of Chile: from the agreements signed in the 1960s for the installation of the Cerro Tololo and Cerro Las Campanas observatories, to the agreement for the installation of the ALMA radio observatory. (Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array) located in the Chajnantor plain in the vicinity of San Pedro de Atacama.

The Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO), Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), and Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope (CCAT) will also be installed in Chile thanks to collaboration agreements managed by the University of Chile, ensuring Chile world leadership in capacity observation for the next 20 years.

The DAS maintains the historical telescopes of the OAN, including an Astrolabe and a Meridian Circle, in operating conditions; a German Heyde refractor telescope, which has been in the OAN since 1913 and the French Gautier telescope, arrived in Chile in 1893.

Since 2002 we have a modern 45cm Cassegrain telescope with CCD cameras, a spectrometer and an astronomical video camera, allowing the training of undergraduate and graduate students in Astronomy. This has allowed us to enhance our scientific dissemination program through guided visits of institutions and individuals, contributing to the teaching of this wonderful science.