How Boeing Helped Design the Giant Magellan Telescope

Chile's Atacama Desert makes for great stargazing. The dry air and sparse settlement are a major draw for astronomical observatories--the European Southern Observatory, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory all operate multiple telescope sites on the region's mountaintops. The desert wind, however, is a problem. The air rushes around and through the enclosures that hold these massive but sensitive, precise instruments. Typically, observatories have responded with heavy mounts and robust structures that keep the mirrors steady amid the turbulence.