PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | August 4, 2010
Proc. SPIE. 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III
KEYWORDS: Observatories, Telescopes, Clouds, Pollution, Liquid crystal on silicon, Space telescopes, Humidity, Turbulence, Meteorology, Lanthanum
Cerro Las Campanas located at Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) in Chile has been selected as the site for the Giant
Magellan Telescope. We report results obtained since the commencement, in 2005, of a systematic site testing survey of
potential GMT sites at LCO. Meteorological (cloud cover, temperature, pressure, wind, and humidity) and DIMM
seeing data have been obtained at three potential sites, and are compared with identical data taken at the site of the twin
Magellan 6.5m telescopes. In addition, measurements of the turbulence profile of the free-atmosphere above LCO have
been collected with a MASS/DIMM. Furthermore, we consider photometric quality, light pollution, and precipitable
water vapor (PWV). LCO, and Co. Las Campanas in particular, have dark skies, little or no risk of future light pollution,
excellent seeing, moderate winds, PWV adequate for mid-IR astronomy during a reasonable fraction of the nights, and a
high fraction of clear nights overall. Finally, Co. Las Campanas meets or exceeds all the defined science requirements.
