Blogs from Atacama, Chile, South America - page 25

Caldera and Copiapo are pretty sleepy towns but nice to visit if only for a couple of days each. On our first day in in the seaside settlement of Caldera there were civil servants placing a Tsunami warning guide in the main plaza which is great so if there happened to be one while visiting we would be, in theory, able to get to high land. Walked over to visit the Grotto that doesn't seem to actually be a grotto in the classical sense, it's more a church built on a mass of rock. Should you visit it the view of the city from the top of the stairs is pretty alright. Taking photos of the frightning murals inside we decided to walk over to the coastline for another perspective of the place. Some youth were ... read more

The Atacama Desert is the driest place on earth. For that reason it has been chosen as a site for various space telescopes. Astronomers and Astrophysicists value the dry atmosphere and the little amount of diffused light due to the remotenes because it gives them a much clearer view into the sky. It makes visits to the telescopes quite difficult though. I had arranged a visit to the telescope of the European Southern Observatories (ESO), the Very Large Telescope (VLT). This prestigious facility was built during the nineties on top of Cerro Paranal as a cooperative project between different European countries. It still remains to be the most powerful telescope today. I had once taken part in a summer school where we got to know the telescope's basic features and discused research projects done based on ... read more