APEX: five years of operations

APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment, is being operated successfully, now for five years, on Llano de Chajnantor at 5107m altitude in the Chilean High Andes. This location is considered one of the worlds outstanding sites for submillimeter astronomy, which the results described in this contribution are underlining. The primary reflector with 12 m diameter is cautiously being maintained at about 15 μm by means of holography. This allows to access all atmospheric submillimeter windows accessible from the ground, up to 200 μm. Telescope and instrument performance, operational experiences and a selection of scientific results are given in this publication.

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