Seeing the Stars in the Atacama Desert

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As I mentioned yesterday, I flew north to the Atacama desert. Along the way I took some photos out the window, including this one of a portion of the snow-capped Andes mountains. I left off writing this blog as I was heading out the door for the star tour, so I will tell you a little about that. We climbed on a bus that drove a short way out into the desert where there were nine telescopes set up for viewing. The genial host, an expatriate Canadian, used his laser pointer to indicate the pertinent sights in the night sky. And then he pointed the telescopes toward interesting objects like stars, star clusters, and, my favorite, Jupiter and four of its moons. We could see Orion, but we also saw the Southern Cross and that is always a treat for us North Hemispherers. I was glad that I followed the advice to bring warm clothing because it did get quite cool out there in the desert. They gave us hot chocolate in the little hut at the end and then drove us back to our hotels. I got to bed around midnight. This morning I set about exploring the town of San Pedro de Atacama. There is not a lot to see because it is quite small, at least the center of town. Mostly there are shops dedicated to tourist activities out in the desert or up in the mountains. But there are plenty of souvenir shops, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and bike rental agencies. I may take advantage of the latter before I go. After arranging for a tour tomorrow, I visited the archeological museum which gets rave reviews in all the guidebooks. I agree. It is clear, concise, and I found it quite interesting in its portrayal of the history of human occupation of the Atacama region. The photo of the museum shows a traffic light with a sign that indicates the current intensity of ultraviolet radiation. It was up to red, the penultimate level, when I went into the museum, and when I came out a little later, the level was up to violet, the highest. One wears long-sleeved shirts, broad rimmed hats, and sunscreen here in the thin clear air because sunburn is all too easy to come by.

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