Thunderbird South: UBC’s Southern Observatory
Thunderbird South is a half-meter telescope located near La Serena, Chile, remotely operated by UBC Astronomy students Andrea Schildhorn and Alex Kauffman. The telescope is predominantly used for deep-sky imaging, on-demand observing, and space domain awareness research.
Recent Observations
Live Telescope Status: Sleeping.
| Date | Target Objects | Note | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 April 2025 | TOI-564 b | Exoplanet Transit | Cancelled: Poor data 🙁 |
| 16 May 2025 | TOI-3235b | Exoplanet Transit | Cancelled: Poor data 🙁 |
| 9 July 2025 | NGC 6334 (Cat’s Paw Nebula) | Astrophotography – Nebulae | Cancelled: Moon too bright. |
| 15 Sep 2025 | NGC 7293 (Helix Nebula) | Astrophotography – Nebulae | Post-processing done |
| 17 Oct 2025 | N11B (Bean Nebula) | Astrophotography – Nebulae | Post-processing in progress. |
| 18 Oct 2025 | WASP-96b | Exoplanet Transit | Pre-processing in progress. |
Projects
Read about our initiatives for exoplanet transit follow-up, space domain awareness, and Earth-space sustainability
Thunder Notes
An inside blog view of telescope operations, ranging from working processes of successful observations to technical mysteries such as “it was working fine yesterday.”