Optical observatories
The astronomical waveband with by far the longest history, because of the transparency of our atmosphere. It was the only waveband for astronomical observations until the detection of radio waves from space in 1931. Accordingly, there are more optical observatories than any others. As mentioned on the page about infrared telescopes, many telescopes observe in both the optical and the near-infrared band.
There used to be a list of links here, but it became outdated, with basically all major observatories modifying their websites. Most external links have therefore been removed.
- Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory, northern Chile
- Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO) in Chile
- La Silla Observatory (La Silla)
- Calar Alto Observatory
- Siding Spring Observatory
- Mount Stromlo Observatory
A special observing mode that is available in the optical/near-infrared waveband since only a very short time is optical/near-IR interferometry.
