Located in Chile's Atacama Region, it sits about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of the city of La Serena.

The LCO's telescopes and facilities are positioned near the northern end of a 7 km (4.3 mi) mountain ridge.

Cerro Las Campanas, situated near the southern end of this ridge and standing over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) tall, will be the future site of the Giant Magellan Telescope.

On February 24, 1987 at LCO, Ian Shelton and Oscar Duhalde became the first official observers of Supernova 1987A (SN 1987A).

[18] On August 17, 2017 at LCO, SSS17a, the optical counterpart to the gravitational wave source GW170817, was discovered with the Swope telescope.