The Víctor M. Blanco Telescope, also known as the Blanco 4m, is a 4-metre aperture telescope located at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile on the summit of Mt. Cerro Tololo. Commissioned in 1974 and completed in 1976, the telescope is identical to the Mayall 4m telescope located on Kitt Peak. In 1995 it was dedicated and named in honour of Puerto Rican astronomer Víctor Manuel Blanco. It was the largest optical telescope in the Southern hemisphere from 1976 until 1998, when the first 8-metre telescope of the ESO Very Large Telescope opened.
Currently the main research instrument used at the telescope is the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), the camera used in the Dark Energy Survey. DECam saw its first light in September 2012.Dark Energy Camera and Dark Energy Survey:photos, videos & graphics fnal.govBerkeley Lab sensors enable first light for the dark energy camera phys.org Retrieved 2012-09-18
The Mosaic II camera was used at this CTIO 4-m telescope in the southern hemisphere since 1999. This was a development of the KNPO Mosaic camera installed in 1998 in the northern hemisphere. These cameras were used for various astronomical surveys, and were noted for their success.
+Largest optical astronomical telescopes in 1976 # Name /Observatory Image Aperture M1Area Altitude FirstLight Special advocate BTA-6 238 inch605 cm 26 m2 1975 Mstislav Keldysh Hale Telescope() 200 inch508 cm 20 m2 1949 George Ellery Hale Mayall Telescope 158 inch401 cm 10 m2 1973 Nicholas Mayall Víctor M. Blanco Telescope 158 inch401 cm 10 m2 1976 Nicholas Mayall Anglo-Australian Telescope 153 inch389 cm 12 m2 1974 Prince Charles ESO 3.6 m Telescope 140 inch357 cm 8.8 m2 1976 Adriaan Blaauw Shane Telescope 120 inch305 cm ~7 m2 1959 Nicholas Mayall
See also List of largest optical reflecting telescopes List of astronomical observatories List of largest optical telescopes in the 20th century
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