La Silla Observatory at 2,400 m (7,870 ft).

Public observatory · La Silla, Coquimbo Region, Chile

La Silla Observatory

La Silla Observatory is a public observatory in La Silla, Coquimbo Region, Chile. It is open to the public.

La Silla Observatory in brief

Open to the public
Yes
Elevation
2,400 m (7,870 ft)
Bortle class
Not yet rated
Part of
multi-telescope complex
Operated by
ESO

Official site

Can you visit La Silla Observatory? Yes

Free guided visits Saturdays 10 am and 2 pm Sep-Mar; Sat and Sun 10 am Apr-Aug; book ahead.

A public night at an observatory usually starts at dusk with a short talk, then a line at the eyepiece of the main telescope for the Moon, a planet or a bright cluster, with volunteers' smaller telescopes set up outside. Dress for the night air even in summer: domes are not heated, so the telescope stays at outside temperature. Many nights sell out or cancel for clouds, so check the observatory's site on the day.

Telescopes at La Silla Observatory

multiple telescopes.

NE of La Serena

multi-telescope complex: 10 observatories on one site

How dark the sky is at La Silla Observatory

La Silla Observatory has no Bortle rating in the list yet. The scale below shows what each class looks like.

1 mag 8.0 21.99+ 2 mag 7.5 21.89+ 3 mag 7.0 21.69+ 4 mag 6.5 20.49+ 5 mag 6.0 19.50+ 6 mag 5.5 18.94+ 7 mag 5.0 18.38+ 8 mag 4.5 18.00+ 9 mag 4.0
The Bortle scale. Each panel shows the class number, the faintest star the naked eye reaches at the zenith, and the darkest-edge sky brightness reading of that class in mag/arcsec².

Sky brightness and class come from the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness (Falchi et al. 2016, CC BY-NC 4.0), with natural skyglow added, at the coordinates below. Research telescopes are often sited on mountains above the haze, so the real sky can be darker than the map suggests.

La Silla Observatory among the observatories of Chile

Alto Loa National Reserve Bosque Fray Jorge National Park Gabriela Mistral Dark Sky Sanctuary Mano del Desierto Río Hurtado Rolf Chini Cerro Murphy Observatory Extremely Large Telescope Llano de Chajnantor Observatory SOAR Telescope (Southern Astrophysical Research) Giant Magellan Telescope CTAO South (Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory South) MASCARA-South BlackGEM Array MPG/ESO 2.2m Telescope Rapid Eye Mount Telescope Swiss Euler Telescope TAROT-South TRAPPIST Telescope VISTA Survey Telescope VLT Survey Telescope Next-Generation Transit Survey UCN 84 Telescope IRIS Telescope Victor M. Blanco 4m Telescope SARA South Telescope CHASE Telescope PROMPT Telescope GONG Telescope Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper Atacama Pathfinder Experiment Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment NANTEN2 Observatory University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory Huan Tran Telescope (HTT) All Sky Automated Survey HAT-South BiSON Deep Sky Chile Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope Simons Observatory ExTrA Danish 1.54m Telescope SPECULOOS-South VLT Auxiliary Telescopes Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope KMTNet-CTIO HATPI CLASS Telescopes Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory ESO 3.6m Telescope Gemini South Observatory Las Campanas Observatory New Technology Telescope Paranal Observatory Very Large Telescope Vera C. Rubin Observatory SMARTS Telescopes Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Du Pont Telescope Swope Telescope Warsaw Telescope Magellan Telescopes La Silla Observatory La Silla, Coquimbo Region, Chile La Silla Observatory La Silla, Coquimbo Region, Chile
Dark sky place Research or private observatory Observatory open to the public

Green dots are observatories open to the public, blue dots research or private sites, squares dark sky places; select one for its page. See Observatories in Chile for the full list.

The coordinates on this page point to La Silla Observatory: 29.258°S, 70.738°W.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Open the larger map · Directions. Mountain observatory roads are often gated after dark; go only on a scheduled public night.

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near La Silla Observatory

Nearest dark sky places

PlaceWhereBortleDistance
Gabriela Mistral Dark Sky SanctuaryVicuna, Chile2101 km (63 mi)
Río HurtadoPichasca, Chile2127 km (79 mi)
Bosque Fray Jorge National ParkOvalle, Chile2181 km (112 mi)

Other observatories open to the public within 150 km

  • New Technology TelescopeLa Silla, Coquimbo Region, Chile, 0 km (0 mi). Part of ESO La Silla public visits
  • ESO 3.6m TelescopeLa Silla, Coquimbo Region, Chile, 1 km (0 mi). Part of ESO La Silla public visits (Saturdays; book ahead)
  • Swope TelescopeCerro Las Campanas, Atacama Region, Chile, 27 km (17 mi). Research site; public visits limited, by arrangement with LCO
  • Magellan TelescopesCerro Las Campanas, Atacama Region, Chile, 27 km (17 mi). Research site; public visits limited, by arrangement with LCO
  • Las Campanas ObservatoryCerro Las Campanas, Atacama Region, Chile, 27 km (17 mi). Limited visits by prior arrangement; check site
  • Du Pont TelescopeCerro Las Campanas, Atacama Region, Chile, 27 km (17 mi). Research site; public visits limited, by arrangement with LCO

La Silla Observatory record

Every value in the observatories dataset for La Silla Observatory
ID99
NameLa Silla Observatory
CityLa Silla
StateCoquimbo Region
CountryChile
ContinentSouth America
Webhttps://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/
Publicy
Jobshttps://recruitment.eso.org/
Telescopemultiple telescopes
Complexmulti-telescope complex
ParentESO
Elevation2400
NotesNE of La Serena
Lat-29.2575
Lon-70.73750
LatLonSpotLa Silla Observatory
StatusActive
StatusNoteESO's first site (1969)
PublicNoteFree guided visits Saturdays 10 am and 2 pm Sep-Mar; Sat and Sun 10 am Apr-Aug; book ahead
Sourceshttps://eso.org/public/about-eso/visitors

From the site's observatories dataset (observatoriesglobal_q426). Distances are computed from the coordinates.