Gemini South

The southern observatory of the two twin 8-meter Gemini telescopes is located at over 2700-meter elevation on a mountain in the Chilean Andes called Cerro Pachón (Spanish for “Pachón hill”). The location is exceedingly dry, making it suitable for astronomical observation, specially in near infrared. The air overhead is very stable, yielding excellent seeing. In this 5-hour exposure stars trail around south celestial pole as seen from Cerro Pachon. The other telescope of the twins is located at top of Hawaii on Mauna Kea.