Astronomiskt fenomen idag i chile
Pavez Eduardo F., Gabriel A. Lobos 2 & Fabian M. Jaksic2, () Långsiktiga förändringar i landskapet och däggdjur assemblage och rovfåglar i centrala Chile, Ornithologists Union of Chile, Casilla , Santiago, Chile, Centrum för avancerade studier i Ecology & Biodiversity (CASEB), Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Revista.
Past Weather in Santiago, Chile — Yesterday and Last 2 Weeks
The view through the eyepiece of the telescope is breathtaking. Like tiny diamonds on black velvet, countless sparkling stars float against a fathomless backdrop of empty space. The country is justly famous for its lush valleys and snowcapped volcanoes, but its most striking scenery may be overhead. It is home to some of the finest places on Earth to enjoy the beauty of the starry sky. Not so in Chile.
A narrow strip of land, 2, miles long and miles at its widest point, Chile is tucked between the Andes Mountains to the east and the Pacific to the west. It stretches from the arid Atacama Desert in the north to the stark granite formations of the Torres del Paine National Park in the south. Large parts of Chile are sparsely populated, and light pollution from cities is hardly a problem. Moreover, the northern part of the country, because of its dry desert atmosphere, experiences more than cloudless nights each year.
Even more important to stargazers, Chile provides a clear view of the spectacular southern sky, which is largely invisible from countries north of the Equator. Long before European astronomers first charted the unknown constellations below the Equator, just over years ago, the indigenous people of Latin America knew the southern sky by heart. Sometimes their buildings and villages were aligned with the heavens, and they used the motions of the sun, the moon and the stars to keep track of time.
Horseback expeditions lasting for many days—back then, there were no roads in this remote part of the world—took them to the summits of mountains like Cerro Tololo, Cerro La Silla and Cerro Las Campanas, where they set up their equipment to monitor humidity or lack thereof , sky brightness and atmospheric transparency. Before long, astronomers from American institutions and from the European Southern Observatory ESO erected observatories in the middle of nowhere.
Himmelskt Ljusfenomen
These outposts experienced their heyday in the s and s, but many of the telescopes are still up and running. European astronomers use the 3. A dedicated megapixel camera attached to the four-meter inches Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory is charting dark matter and dark energy—two mysterious components of the universe that no one really understands. Check out their schedules in advance to prevent disappointment—the drive from La Serena to La Silla may take almost two hours, and the curvy mountain roads can be treacherous.
I once got my four-wheel-drive pickup truck in a spin while descending the gravel road from Las Campanas Observatory, a scary ride I hope never to repeat. Also, dress warm it can be extremely windy on the summits , wear sunglasses and apply loads of sunblock. Most professional observatories are open to visitors only during daytime hours. The oldest is Mamalluca Observatory, some six miles northwest of the town of Vicuña, which opened in Here amateur astronomers give tours and introductory lectures, and guides point out the constellations and let visitors gaze at stars and planets through a number of small telescopes.
You can look through a centimeter 25 inches telescope at Pangue Observatory, located ten miles south of Vicuña. Farther south, near the town of Andacollo, is Collowara Observatory, one of the newest tourist facilities in the region. And south of La Serena, on the Combarbalá plain, is Cruz del Sur Observatory, equipped with a number of powerful modern telescopes. Most observatories offer return trips to hotels in Pisco Elqui, Vicuña or Ovalle.
Tours can be booked online or through travel agents in town. I will never forget my first look at the Chilean night sky in May I was awed by the glorious constellations of Scorpio and the Southern Cross, the star-studded Milky Way with its many star clusters and nebulae, and of course the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds two companion galaxies to our own Milky Way. Little wonder that professional astrophotographers have fallen in love with Chile.
Some of them have the privilege of being designated photo ambassadors by ESO: They get nighttime access to observatories, and their work is promoted on the ESO website. East of the harbor town of Antofagasta, the Atacama Desert looks like a Martian landscape. In fact, this is where planetary scientists tested the early prototypes of their Mars rovers. Here, 8, feet above sea level, astronomers enjoy the serene spectacle of sunset above the Pacific Ocean before they switch on the four huge 8.
And yes, even this temple of ground-based astronomy is open to visitors only on Saturdays. A couple hundred miles to the northeast, tucked away between the Cordillera de la Sal mountain range and the Altiplano on the border with Argentina, is the oasis of San Pedro de Atacama. The region was inhabited thousands of years before the Spanish conquistadors built the first adobe houses and a Roman Catholic church in the 17th century—one of the oldest churches in Chile.
Today San Pedro is a laid-back village, populated by backpackers and lazy dogs. It serves as the hub for exploratory trips to the surrounding natural wonders, from the nearby Valle de la Luna to the remote El Tatio geyser field. A few steps into a dark side road will give you an unobstructed view of the heavens. Over the last couple of years, San Pedro has become a second home for the astronomers of the international ALMA observatory.
On clear days the OSF offers stunning views of nearby volcanoes and over the Salar de Atacama salt flat. While ALMA studies invisible radiation from distant stars and galaxies, San Pedro also affords many opportunities for old-fashioned stargazing. Some fancy resorts, like Alto Atacama and Explora, have their own private observatories where local guides take you on a tour of the heavens.