For European and North American stargazers, a trip to the Southern Hemisphere can be truly disorienting. Orion appears on his head or side, Polaris can't be seen at all, and even the sun seems lost, following a course through the northern sky. Few visitors will forget their first glimpse of the Southern Cross, or Cruz del Sur; less well known are the Clouds of Magellan, two irregular satellite galaxies of our Milky Way visible to the unaided eye at a distance of 180,000,000 light years.
The skies above the Andean foothills between La Serena and Copiapó are recognized as being the clearest in the southern hemisphere, a fact which has led the world's great astronomical laboratories to construct giant observatories here.
The European Southern Observatory, representing a coalition of eight European nations, maintains La Silla Observatory and Paranal Observatory further north; here the ESO is busy at work on the last of four 8.2 meter telescopes which together comprise the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, meanwhile, is constructing an 8 meter Gemini telescope near their current site. Las Campanas Observatory, owned by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is in the process of adding two 6.5 meter telescopes to their installations near La Serena.
While the Community Observatory at Cerro Mamalluca is open for public viewing, the rest of these observatories are only open for tours during the daytime. Nonetheless, beneath these skies even the unaided eye reveals new constellations, new galaxies, new worlds.
Thanks to the Tourism Promotion Corporation of Chile : 202-530-4109
This is at least the fifth trip we have booked with AdventureLife. Jess has always had excellent ideas.
Thomas Brayshaw
2 months ago
Rapid response.
kym
4 months ago
great people doing a wonderful job to make our voyages happen.
trudy
4 months ago
Kassandra rocks! She had our trip planned and helped us arrange our air travel within the day we contacted her. She has helped us with our trips to Chile Argentina and Costa Rica, and she always finds us wonderful activities and accommodations. We’re looking forward to seeing what she’s planning for us this time when we go to Easter island
Janet
4 months ago
This is our 7th trip Kassandra has planned and she is wonderful to work with. She is responsive, helpful, patient and knowledgeable. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to work together with her. We love Adventure Life!