Tucked away in the foothills of the Andes Mountains sits the Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope. The telescope which was designed by two UNC alumni, Bruce Carney and Wayne Christiansen, has pioneered the way for other telescopes sitting on Cerro Pachon. The mountains that surround the Atacama Valley are home to dozens of telescopes used around the world. Cerro Tololo, the neighboring mountain, is the site for eight other telescopes with plans for more to come. “When we went to Chile for the first time to scope out a site to build the SOAR telescope, we were looking at Cerro Tololo. The mountain had so many telescopes on it. There was not a lot of room for a good site for another telescope. I looked across the way and saw Cerro Pachon and pointed at it and said ‘what about there?’ After a night of observing, my friend and I left Tololo and hiked up this other mountain, I got to the top and said ‘yeah, this is it.’ This is where we are going to build SOAR.” Christiansen said.
Inside the telescope several Chilean astronomers and mechanics work around the clock to ensure the SOAR telescope functions properly. If you talk to any worker inside the telescope you will eventually hear the same motto, “safety is our biggest concern”. Although their jobs do not appear to be dangerous on the surface, the workers come in contact with heavy machinery and as a result, prioritize safety before anything else.
Most of the workers inside the SOAR telescope have been around SOAR ever since its existence. “There’s something special about it, it draws you in and you can’t stop.” Mauricio, a SOAR mechanic, says about his passion for astronomy and love for the SOAR telescope. The team is small and works long hours together has created a family relationship among them.
SOAR technicians take a special trip inside the telescope wiring after a malfunction with the system alerts the control room. “We don’t usually do this.” Ian, the lead technician says. “It’s no big deal, something is wrong and we simply need to figure it out. I am not panicked. I am just doing my job.” The technicians tinker with the telescope’s calibration until they receive a call from the neighbouring telescope’s staff alerting them that there it is a power outage which is what likely caused the malfunction. The team rushes to a different room and turns on a generator. Problem solved.
“Obviously astronomers can only do their research at night. That means lots of back-to-back night shifts. And they are long shifts too. You want to maximize your time with the stars.” Patricio Ugarte, an observer support technician at SOAR says. Ugarte begins to drink his third cup of coffee after working a night shift. He doesn’t sleep during the day since he only works night shifts one week out of the month. Inside the telescope’s facilities, the rooms are small and mostly full of machinery and computers but the SOAR team makes room for a permanent coffee station, complete with a cabinet full of cookies to accompany the caffeine.
Patricio Ugarte looks back toward the outside of SOAR watching the telescope’s shutter close to make sure everything functions properly. “I’ve done this everyday since 2003. The view is beautiful, but after 13 years sometimes you forget to appreciate it.”
The control room inside the SOAR facility is cluttered with dozens of computers, machines, and wires that all are necessary to keep SOAR running. Although the team is small, the control room always seems to be busy with mechanics, astronomers, and technicians all of which run daily routines on their respective roles within the internal programming of the telescope.
Once a month the SOAR team cleans the lens of the telescope with refrigerated nitrogen gas. Patricio Ugarte twists the nozzle to release the gas from the container. “You have to be very, very careful. The gas is about -400°F. It could really really hurt you if you aim it in the wrong direction.” Despite this fact, Ugarte stands calmly facing the other direction, away from the deadly gas, watching the sun set from the telescope’s shutter. “This is one of the best views, you got to take it in even if you’re working,” he says.
The crew preps for the night after parking all of their cars on the mountain before the sun completely sets. Once it is dark, no light is allowed on the mountain which can make driving without headlights especially treacherous considering the roads leading up to the SOAR telescope are unpaved, with no guard rails and tight turns. “The telescope comes alive at night. This is the most exciting time,” Ugarte says.
“So what is the reward of being a scientist? Why would you ever spend all this time and all this effort to do something like look at points of light that we call stars? Well, there’s this moment when you look deeply into something and you have a special tool that you built, so you can see things for the first time that no one else knows. So the moment of scientific discovery that excites most scientists, that keeps them going, is when you learn something about this universe, and for a little bit of time, only you know that. You have possession of knowledge no one else on earth has, you know something about the universe – maybe it’s not significant, maybe it is significant – but you alone know it. And before you tell anybody, you get to enjoy a few minutes in possession of profound knowledge that you got through your own hard labor, that only you possess. That’s why people are scientists.” Dr. Chris Clemens, UNC astronomy professor and SOAR board member, says.
