The Simons Observatory Site atop Cerro Toco


The Simons Observatory is located at 5200m altitude atop Cerro Toco in the Parque Astrónomico Atacama in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The high altitude and extremely arid climate make Cerro Toco a prime location for observing the cosmic microwave background.

The Simons Observatory consists of three 0.5m Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) and one 6m Large Aperture Telescope (LAT). The mix of small and large telescopes allows us to map the CMB at both large and small scales, facilitating a great deal of cosmological and astrophysical analysis.