Dear LCO observers, While the overall rate of new Covid-19 infections in Chile continues to drop, the case numbers in the Coquimbo and Vallenar areas are at their highest level to date. For this reason, we will continue to operate a single Magellan telescope (Baade) through at least July 5, 2021. We will provide…
Dear LCO community, The La Serena/Coquimbo region has entered a lockdown to help slow the rising Covid-19 cases in the area. For this reason, we are extending the closure of the Clay telescope through April 19, 2021. We will continue night time operations of the Baade telescope during this period. Based on recommendations from the Magellan Scientific Advisory Committee,…
Dear all, Today, March 8, 2021, the Chilean Ministry of Health announced 4,733 new cases of COVID-19 in the country (positivity of 13.1%), 65 of them in the Atacama Region and 209 in the Coquimbo Region. Due to the latter, as of Thursday, March 11 at 5 am, the communes of Salamanca, Coquimbo, La Serena…
Dear all, Due to the increase of COVID-19 cases in the Coquimbo Region, we have decided to downgrade the operations phase at Las Campanas Observatory from Ops-2 (C2) to Ops-1, starting January 26, 2021. This applies both on the mountain and at the El Pino offices. Our decision to change phases follows the official indicators…
Dear LCO community, We regret to inform you that COVID-19 cases in Chile have reached a level where we need to reduce our staffing on Las Campanas and return to operating just a single Magellan telescope. Beginning January 26, 2021, only the Baade telescope will remain operational. We anticipate that the Clay telescope will be closed until at…
Dear LCO collaborators, Given the continuous improvement of sanitary conditions in the Region, and considering the minimal restart of observations in Magellan / Clay, it is a pleasure to announce that the Las Campanas Observatory goes from Phase B to Phase C1 on Tuesday 6, 2020. For more details on Phase C1, please refer to…
Dear LCO collaborators, There is light at the end of the tunnel! Literally said, we soon return to the light of the stars. In practice, we go from phase A to phase B (see definition of phases on the LCO website). For this return to be brilliant, we will have to put a lot of…
Dear LCO community, We are happy to report that the covid case numbers have been falling in the La Serena area and the region has exited quarantine today. Given this positive development, we are able to slightly increase the number of employees at Las Campanas. Starting tomorrow, we will begin to cool down instruments on…
Dear LCO collaborators, Today, the Ministerio de Salud reported 1,764 new cases of COVID-19, with a total of 424,274 infections since the arrival of the coronavirus in Chile. In the Coquimbo Region, according to authorities, there are 10,588 total accumulated cases, 96 of them new and 810 active, with 159 deaths in total. Due to…
The Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) of the Carnegie Institution for Science Observatories –a world-class astronomical institution– has several openings for our new Survey Operations Team at the du Pont 2.5 m telescope as Survey Observer/Operator (SOO). As part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V), the duPont telescope operations is transitioning to a full…