SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Astronomers opened a new window to the cosmos on Saturday by inaugurating a powerful U.S.-Brazilian telescope under northern Chile's famously clear skies.



The $30 million Southern Astrophysical Research, or SOAR, telescope sits at 8,800 feet above sea level on Cerro Pachon mountain above the unpolluted Elqui Valley, 300 miles north of Santiago.


Builders broke ground on the telescope project six years ago. It was financed by the U.S. government's Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the government of Brazil, and University of North Carolina and Michigan State University in the United States.


A $13.5 million optical system including steering and alignment mechanisms will help to wobble SOAR's main mirror along two axes to compensate for atmospheric turbulence and take clear pictures of objects in space.


"SOAR is a modern telescope designed specifically to take the clearest possible images from earth," NOAO astronomist Hugo Schwarz said by telephone from SOAR's offices in La Serena, Chile.

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