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Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research (SOAR)
 SOAR is a high-performance 4.1-m aperture astronomical telescope atop Cerro Pachon, Chile. The project was initiated in 1995 by astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO, which is run by the US National Optical Astronomy Observatories NOAO). In 1996 Brazil and Michigan State University completed the partnership.
The telescope employs active control of its optics and tip/tilt wavefront stabilization to attain median visible-band images of 0.67 arcsec. In the near-IR tip/tilt stabilized images have been as small as 0.25 arcseconds FWHM. In 2009, a ground-layer compensating, adaptive optics unit will be installed; it
will receive a Rayleigh laser beacon in 2010.
Instruments are being commissioned throughout 2008 and 2009. At UNC, instruments are controlled remotely and data are retrieved quickly from a facility in Chapman Hall, adjacent to Phillips Hall. Up to date details on telescope and instrument performance are available at www.soartelescope.org.
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