On July 31st of 1969, the Carnegie Institution for Science signed an agreement that launched construction of the CARSO Observatory in Chile, the Carnegie Southern Observatory, known as LCO today. For me, the opportunity to study the southern sky was a marvelous one, so I decided to support the installation of our first observation instrument here. That’s how, in 1971, the Henrietta Swope telescope came to be. This year marks 50 years since its first light; in other words, the first time it was used to observe an astronomical object. Do you want to look it up?
