Although small by modern standards, the Southern Observatory nevertheless became famous for its role in the discovery of SN 1987A when UofT astronomer Ian Shelton spotted the supernova while observing with another little-used telescope at the site.
There seemed to be no end in sight to the outward growth of the city, and the process would eventually result in the Observatory being completely surrounded by housing, rendering it largely unusable due to street lighting.
The director considered looking for a new site further north of the city, but at this time in the late 1960s a number of major observatories were starting to set up stations in Chile.
Astronomers at the university, Garrison, Racine and van den Bergh, all had experience with Chile, and strongly urged establishing a site there.
The result was a National Research Council of Canada (NRC) grant in 1969 to purchase a 60 cm prototype telescope from Competition Associates in Boston.