Instrumentation & Site
The Simons Observatory consists of a suite of Large and Small Aperture Telescopes developed and deployed across a high-altitude site near the summit of Cerro Toco in Northern Chile’s Atacama Desert.
The Simons Observatory builds on decades of support and investment of precursor experimental cosmology instruments and science infrastructure by the National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF’s support has allowed for an expanded understanding of the Cosmic Microwave Background, development of state-of-the-art instrumentation and analysis techniques, and the release of groundbreaking science results to the public. Pathfinder experiments that led the way to the Simons Observatory on Cerro Toco over nearly three decades include the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), Simons Array/PolarBear, Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS), MAT/TOCO, and the Atacama B-mode Search (ABS).
On the Simons Observatory site, a single Large Aperture Telescope (LAT) and multiple Small Aperture Telescopes (SATs) are supported by scientific support facilities including a high-bay for the integration of the LAT and SAT receivers (cameras), clean room space for the integration of delicate optical and detector subsystems, as well as control room and office buildings.
The Simons Observatory site is powered by a mix of diesel electric generators. These will be supplemented by a large-scale photovoltaic power plant since the combination of diesel and photovoltaic electricity generation is required to ensure the energy security of this remote site. To learn more about the Simons Observatory large- and small-aperture telescopes and the full observatory site, click on the sections below.
Large Aperture Telescope
Small Aperture Telescopes
