A Finer View Of The Heavens
Cerro La Silla, Chile - The light gathered by the 3.6-meter telescope atop this parched mountaintop has traveled so far it may be the faint signature of a star that no longer exists. So why, asks Manuel Silva, ruin its journey in the last 15 meters?
This was Silva's problem to solve: Without an adequate cooling system, heat escaping from the telescope dome when it was opened at night would distort the light that had traveled thousands of billions of miles to reach the earth -- much the same as heat waves rising from an asphalt road distort the image of oncoming traffic.
La Silla: a finer view of the heavens Silva, an engineer for Interma, Carrier's former distributor and a valued customer in Santiago, solved the problem so effectively he and Carrier Chile have developed a reputation as Chile's telescope cooling experts. The skills he demonstrated at La Silla helped Carrier win the recent contract to cool the world's largest array of telescopes now under construction at Cerro Paranal, about 650 kilometers north of here.
The telescopes at Cerro Paranal will be cooled by three, 23XL screw chillers manufactured in Syracuse, N.Y. Besides their efficiency, the screw chillers also were chosen because of their low vibration levels. As anyone who has used a pair of high power binoculars knows, even small movements are magnified by an optical device. Imagine the multiplication when the object you're looking at is 10 million light years away.
There are other new Chilean observatories still under bid that have Carrier chillers in their sights, as well, says Alfredo Rodriguez, general manager of Carrier Chile.
Both Cerro La Silla and Cerro Paranal are operated by a consortium of European nations under the umbrella of the European Organization for Astronomy. The ESO, or European Southern Observatories, are located in the Atacama Desert for good reasons. The Atacama is the driest place on earth. The frigid Humboldt Current just off Chile's Pacific coast cools the prevailing westerlies and reduces the air's ability to hold moisture. Once the air is reheated, its relative humidity plunges. The result is more than 300 cloudless nights a year at La Silla and 350 clear nights at Cerro Paranal. And since there are no major cities nearby, there is no haze, no air pollution and no light pollution.
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