The venerable Cerro Tolar remote site testing observatory that TMT has operated since November 2003 has completed its mission. We have enough data to compare this site with others and the data has been analyzed and the results show that Tolar is an excellent site. The observatory has now been dismantled, all of the equipment has been removed and the site has been fully restored. This marks an important milestone in our site testing program.

We have written, in this Newscast, many accounts of the testing of three mountain sites in Chile, one in Mexico and one in Hawaii. Each site is tested with an identical remotely operated robotic observatory. Of these 5 observatories, the system on Cerro Tolar was started first and took data in November 2003. It is natural that it has completed its task first. We have recorded some of the dismantling on video.

I described my own first trip up to Tolar in the article My Summer Vacation in February. If you want to get the flavor of travel up these peaks, view the movie just taken as the dismantling of Tolar began. More than a record of the dismantling, this clip is a vivid visual description of the terrain, spectacular vistas and the remote and difficult work that our team has undertaken.

Two other clips [Dismantling 1] [Dismantling 2] at record snips of the dismantling. Visually boring and simultaneously visually exciting. Rough work and vital work. That is what this kind of work entails. It makes me admire and appreciate even more our team members who have made it possible to characterize Cerro Tolar.