La Silla Observatory

The La Silla Observatory, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile and at an altitude of 2400 metres, has been an ESO stronghold since the 1960s. Here, ESO operates several of the most productive 4-metre class telescopes in the world.

The 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) broke new ground for telescope engineering and design and was the first in the world to have a computer-controlled main mirror (active optics), a technology developed at ESO and now applied to most of the world’s current large telescopes.

The ESO 3.6-metre telescope is now home to the world’s foremost extrasolar planet hunter: HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), a spectrograph with unrivalled precision.

The La Silla Observatory is the first world-class observatory to have been granted certification for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 Quality Management System. The infrastructure of La Silla is also used by many of the ESO member states for targeted projects such as the Swiss 1.2-metre Euler telescope, the Rapid-Eye Mount (REM) and TAROT gamma-ray burst chaser, as well as more common user facilities such as the 2.2-metre Max Planck and the 1.5-metre Danish telescopes. The 67-million pixel Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-metre telescope has taken many amazing images of celestial objects, some of which have now become icons in their own right.

With about 300 refereed publications attributable to the work of the observatory per year, La Silla remains at the forefront of astronomy. La Silla has led to an enormous number of scientific discoveries, including several “firsts”. The HARPS spectrograph is the undisputed champion at finding low-mass extrasolar planets. It detected the system around Gliese 581, which contains what may be the first known rocky planet in a habitable zone, outside the Solar System (eso0722). Several telescopes at La Silla played a crucial role in linking gamma-ray bursts — the most energetic explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang — with the explosions of massive stars. Since 1987, the ESO La Silla Observatory has also played an important role in the study and follow-up of the nearest recent supernova, SN 1987A.

The La Silla Observatory is located at the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert, one of the driest and loneliest areas of the world. Like other observatories in this geographical area, La Silla is located far from sources of light pollution and, like the Paranal Observatory, home to the Very Large Telescope, it has one of the darkest night skies on the Earth.

The information of this article was extracted from ESO’s official website.

http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/index.html

Paranal Observatory (VLT)

The Very Large Telescope array (VLT) is the flagship facility for European ground-based astronomy at the beginning of the third Millennium. It is the world’s most advanced optical instrument, consisting of four Unit Telescopes with main mirrors of 8.2m diameter and four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes. The telescopes can work together, in groups of two or three, to form a giant ‘interferometer’, the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer, allowing astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes. The light beams are combined in the VLTI using a complex system of mirrors in underground tunnels where the light paths must be kept equal to distances less than 1/1000 mm over a hundred metres. With this kind of precision the VLTI can reconstruct images with an angular resolution of milliarcseconds, equivalent to distinguishing the two headlights of a car at the distance of the Moon.

The 8.2m diameter Unit Telescopes can also be used individually. With one such telescope, images of celestial objects as faint as magnitude 30 can be obtained in a one-hour exposure. This corresponds to seeing objects that are four billion (four thousand million) times fainter than what can be seen with the unaided eye.

The large telescopes are named Antu, Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun.

The information of this article was extracted from ESO’s official website.

http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/vlt/index.html

SOAR Observatory

This observatory shares the summit of the Cerro Pachon (mountain), with the Gemini South observatory. The mirror of the telescope, only 10 cm. thick, possesses advanced technology that  provides the lens with the ability to adjust  its shape according to weather conditions, through electromagnetic actuators, providing a picture of a quality far superior to conventional mirrors. Leer mas

Gemini Observatory

Near the Cerro Tololo Observatory and at 2,700 meters above the sea level are the Gemini Center, another giant in astronomy that has Chile. It is an international cooperative project involving the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. Its objective is the operation of two telescopes of 8.1 meters, one on the Cerro Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA, and the other on Cerro Pachon, in the IV Region of Chile. Both are designed to produce high quality images of the universe, of course, thanks to the excellent weather conditions there. Leer mas

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

The most famous astronomical center of all Chile, located, in the Aymara language, at the “edge of abyss.” When you see the vast landscape that opens up from an elevation of 2.200 meters, revealing the valley and its most hidden corners, you will see how the name gains meaning. The view is priceless. Leer mas

Cruz del Sur Observatory

Name: It takes the name from one of the most classical constellation of the southern sky: the Southern Cross or Crux. This is because the domes of the observatory are placed the same way as the stars in Crux constellation.

Location: Combarbalá at 1.140 meters above the sea level, 3 hours southeast from La Serena. The road is fully paved.

Description: The project of this observatory was promoted in the IV region of Chile by the Municipality of Combarbalá and the Planetarium of the University of Santiago. It was funded by the Regional Counsel of Coquimbo who, at the beginning of 2005, donated 246 million of pesos for the construction and implementation of this new astronomic center.

Equipment: Two telescopes Meade LX200-R Schmidt-Cassegrain type of 16″ and two Meade equipments, LX200-R Schmidt-Cassegrain de 14″ type, all of them with equatorial mount.

Visiting Hours: 17:00, 20:00, 22:00 hrs.

Pangue Observatory

Name: The observatory takes the name from the property where it is placed, the farm El Pangue.

Location: It is located 18 km to the south of the city of Vicuña, and 80 km to the east of the city of La Serena at 1500 mt above the sea level. The offices are in the city of Vicuña.

Description: Astronomica del Sur is a company related to the astronomy field: courses, colsuntancies, education, etc. This was the company behind the construction of the Mamalluca observatory and Pangue observatory is one of their new projects. Leer mas

Mayu Observatory

Name: Cerro Mayu Observatory. Mayu in the tongue of the Incas means “Milky Way”.

Location: Quebrada de Talca, 27 km East from the city of La Serena.

Description: This project started in 1969 with the creation of the Astronomy and Physics Academy of the observatory of the Seminario Conciliar School, one of the most traditional schools of La Serena. In 1977 is inaugurated the Tololito Observatory, named that way after the famous scientific Observatory Cerro Tololo. Leer mas

Elqui Stars and Wines

Producing wine out of the central valleys (Casablanca, Colchagua, Maipo, etc.) was some years ago a risky business. And if now the Limari valley has acquired some kind of status, what Falernia Vineyard did, in its beginnings (1998),  was an even more daring quest: to move the wine production limit in Chile to the Atacama desert border, towards the charming Elqui Valley, in order to take advantage of the micro-climates created by the influence of the sea and the cordillera. Today this move seems to have given results: in 2002 the vineyard received its first prize in the second Annual Tasting with its Syrah Alta Tierra 2002. Since then this vineyard of Italian immigrants, the most northern one in Chile, hasn´t stopped winning prizes.

During our journey we will learn the secrets that Falernia Vineyard keeps in its crops and wineries, we will taste its wine varieties and we will end up facing one of the biggest attractions of the valley: its dark skies, the clearest of the world.

At 15:00 we will be leaving La Serena being our first stop Titon  farm. This farm is located 11 miles from the ocean at 350 meters above sea level. Due to the influence of the sea, the farm has moderate temperatures and mist (until noon most of the time), perfect conditions for the production of the Chardonay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Syrah and Pinot Noir varieties.

After this we will continue with our guide until we reach the wineries and stores of the vineyard, where we will meet, learn and taste the main wine varieties of Falernia Vineyard.

Then we will visit the second farm, a hill that will allow us to see the Puclaro Dam. With a capacity of 200.000.000 m³ this dam gives us a beautiful landscape of a lake among the mountains. This area is perfect for the production of Syrah and Pedro Jimenez wine varieties.

Later we will visit the farms that Falernia has in the surroundings of Vicuña, the biggest city of the Elqui valley. This crops lies on the old river-bed at 600 meters above sea level. Here we will learn about the history of the Elqui river just before we go to Vicuña. In Vicuña we will rest and wait for the stars.

The end of our trip comes with the arrival of the night, when we will be received in the tourist observatory with the best technical and human equipment of Chile: the Pangue observatory. It is located 10 miles to the south of Vicuña, in the middle of the mystic Elqui valley, at 1.500 mts (4.900 ft aprox.) elevation, just an hour and a half from La Serena. This is a unique place, the only human constructions visible from Pangue are the scientific observatories Cerro Tololo and Gemini. But the most outstanding thing is the quality of the sky, the result of the combination of light pollution absence and good weather.

The visit to this observatory begins with an introductory talk made by the observatory guides. One of the advantage of Pangue observatory in comparison with the rest of touristic observatories is the human team: the only tourist observatory directed by experts (astronomers, teachers and astrophotographers). The talks are very clear and instructive and they work with small groups in order to make everyone to understand and participate in a better way. No more than 12 people.

Now the technical equipment they have consist in one 12″ telescope, a 16″ telescope and a Dobsonian 25″ telescope, making the Pangue observatory, the one with the best telescopes in Chile.

Included:

• Transfer
• Guide
• Wine tasting at Falernia Vineyard
• Dinner at Cocinas Solares restaurant
• Ticket Observatory

Note: Tour subject to weather conditions. Absence of full moon  needed to make this tour.

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Tour Collowara Observatory

Our stellar journey under the dark skies of Andacollo, just an hour from La Serena at 1.300 mts (4.200 ft aprox.) elevation, begins with a explicative talk about the universe from a specialized guide in the projection hall of the Collowara amateur observatory.

The hall where the talk is given is wide and comfortable, very similar to a cinema. After the talk, outside the observatory, the guide explains us, with the help of a laser pointer, about the constellations and their location, encouraging us to use our imagination.

Later on and after we watch the sky with our bear eyes we go to the telescopes. Collowara has high quality equipment: a 16″ telescope, a 14″ telescope and a 10″ telescope placed in special way to have a 360º sight.

Included:

• Transfer
• Snack
• Ticket for Observatory

Note: The tour is subject to weather conditions.

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