Visiting the Rubin Telescope
Rubin Telescope
Last February I traveled with three amateur astronomy friends to Chile for a week of observing the southern sky. We leased a private observatory on the top of a mountain just south of Vicuña. The observatory included a 16‑inch Schmidt‑Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) in a dome and a 25‑inch Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount, along with several other instruments. When we weren’t observing, we enjoyed life in our AirBnB villas on a mountainside north of town.
Our daily routine was simple: sleep as late as possible, get up for a light brunch, and prepare for the evening’s observing. In the late afternoon we drove into Vicuña for a large dinner, then headed up the mountain to the observatory to set up our equipment and wait for darkness. Each of us had our preferred instruments. Jerry used his 15×70 binoculars and a 12‑inch Dob. Clayton used his small refractor and the 16‑inch SCT. Greg spent nearly all his time at the eyepiece of the 25‑inch Dobsonian. My preference was my 20×80 binoculars and the 16‑inch SCT. Once observing began, conversation stopped except for the occasional shout from one of us to share a spectacular view. Near dawn we closed up the instruments and drove back down the terrifying switchbacks to our villas to sleep.
Our first night we stayed at the villa and got acquainted with the sky, which was initially disorienting. Orion lay on his side, and Scorpius was enormous—its tail seemed to stretch on forever. Most disconcerting was the upside‑down Moon. But then there were the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the Southern Cross, the Coalsack Nebula, the Tarantula Nebula, and the globular clusters Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae, all of them new to me. Every other night we used the observatory, where I completed more than 100 observations during the week: galaxies, globular clusters, open clusters, and various nebulae. The sky was clear and dry every night, and I managed more observing in that one week than I typically do in an entire season in Minnesota.
Friday was different. Instead of sleeping in, we got up early and drove to the foot of Cerro Pachón, where we took a bus up to the Rubin Observatory for a public tour. The tour included the telescope control room, the expansive workshop where the mirrors can be recoated, and the telescope itself. We stood just a few feet from the aperture, with the primary mirror and the world’s largest camera clearly visible. This was especially meaningful to me because my research project will use data from the Rubin telescope.
By the end of the week we were all exhausted but happy. This was an amazing trip with ideal conditions for observing, and I've seen the Rubin telescope and its sky.
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