Victor Manuel Blanco, American astronomer, director of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. died he was , 92.

Victor Manuel Blanco  was a Puerto Rican astronomer who in 1959 discovered "Blanco 1", a galactic cluster died he was , 92. Blanco was the second Director of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, which had the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere at the time.^[3] In 1995, the telescope was dedicated in his honor and named the Victor M. Blanco Telescope; it is also known as the "Blanco 4m"^.

(March 10, 1918 – March 8, 2011)

  Early years

Blanco was born in the town of Guayama, Puerto Rico, where he received his primary and secondary education. As a child, Blanco would often wonder about the stars and became interested in astronomy. He moved to the city of Chicago and entered the University of Chicago where he earned a Bachelors of Science degree.^[5] During World War II, Blanco served in the US Army Air Force in the Pacific Theater. Blanco continued his studies and earned his Masters degree in Arts and later his doctorate in astronomy. Employed by the University of Puerto Rico as an assistant professor of Astrometry, Blanco was recruited in 1948 and assisted in the task of polishing the mirrors of the 200-inch Hale telescope in California. In 1949, he returned to Puerto Rico and reassumed his duties at the UPR.^[6]
Blanco later served as the Director of the Astrometry and Astrophysics Division of the United States Naval Observatory.^[5] The U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) provides a wide range of astronomical data and products, and serves as the official source of time for the U.S. Department of Defense and a standard of time for the entire United States.^[7] He also served in Java, Indonesia for UNESCO in the position of astronomer.

Accomplishments

Blanco, a professor of Astrophysics at the Case Institute of Technology (renamed Case Western Reserve University in 1967) in Cleveland, Ohio,^[3] discovered an open cluster in 1959. The stellar cluster which was named Blanco 1, in his honor, has the blue star Zeta Sculptoris in the center of its constellation.^[1] According to "The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society", Blanco 1 exhibits subsolar ratios that are not observed among nearby field stars.^[8] Blanco and his wife Betty Blanco together with Martin McCarthy work on the stellar population in the central regions of our galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds was pioneering. They discovered of the change in the ratio of carbon stars to M-type stars from the nuclear bulge of our galaxy to the LMC and then the SMC.^[3]
In July 1967, Blanco became the second director of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). Located in Cerro Tololo mountain, Chile and founded in 1963, it is part of the National (U.S.) Optical Astronomy Observatory known as "NOAO" Blanco built the scientific, engineering, and technical staff from scratch.^[3]
When Blanco arrived at CTIO, there was a 60-inch telescope in operation. During his tenure the University of Michigan's 0.6-m Curtis Schmidt moved there in 1967, CTIO installed a 0.9-m reflector in 1967 and a 1.5-m reflector in 1968, and Yale University's 1-m reflector, was installed there in 1973.^[9] Blanco played an instrumental role in persuading various agencies to participate in the construction of a 4-m telescope. During its construction, he personally played a major role in the alignment and commissioning of the telescope. The telescope, which is the southern twin of the 4-m instrument at Kitt Peak National Observatory, opened in 1974. The 4-m became the most productive telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.^[3]
As director of CTIO, Blanco also maintained excellent relations with the Chilean astronomical community and the Chilean public at large. His tenure spanned the presidencies of Eduardo Frei Montalva, Salvador Allende, and Augusto Pinochet.^[3] Blanco was director of CTIO until 1981, when he was succeeded by Dr. Osmer.^[4]

Victor M. Blanco Telescope

On October 15, 1985, Dr. E. Bowell discovered a main belt asteroid with an orbital period of 1571.4391974 days (4.30 years) which he named 9550 Victorblanco in honor of Blanco.^[10]
On 8 September 1995, in a well attended mountain top ceremony, the CTIO 4-m telescope was officially named the "Victor M. Blanco Telescope" which is also known as "the Blanco 4m". The Victor M. Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory is used to help scientists study cosmic acceleration, the observation that the universe seems to be expanding at an accelerating rate. A large bronze plaque affixed to the outside the main entrance to the building reads (in Spanish, then English)^[3]:

Written works and academic memberships

Blanco was the co-author of many articles in astrophysics including:

• Telescopes, Red Stars, and Chilean Skies, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 39: 1-18 (Volume publication date September 2001). ^[11]
• Carbon stars, Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica (ISSN 0185-1101), vol. 19, Dec. 1989, p. 25-37.^[12]
• Late type giants in Large Magellanic Cloud, Nature 258, 407 - 408 (04 December 1975); doi:10.1038/258407a0.^[13]
• Basic Physics of the Solar System, V. M. Blanco and S. W. McCuskey. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1961. xii + 307 pp.^[14]

He was a member of the International Astronomical Union in the following divisions^[15]:

• Division IX Commission 25 Stellar Photometry & Polarimetry
• Division VII Commission 33 Structure & Dynamics of the Galactic System
• Division IV Commission 45 Stellar Classification
• Division XII Commission 50 Protection of Existing & Potential Observatory Sites
• Division IV Stars
• Division VII Galactic System
• Division IX Optical & Infrared Techniques
• Division XII Union-Wide Activities

Death

Blanco died on March 8, 2011 at Vero Beach, Florida. He was survived by his wife of 42 years, Betty Blanco, a son, Daniel Blanco, a stepson, David Mintz, and a stepdaughter, Elizabeth Vitell.^[16]

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