My VLT Adventure!
A Chilean Stargazing Adventure: Visiting the VLT and Exploring Atacama
When our cousins, who had recently settled in Santiago, Chile, invited us to visit, we didn’t hesitate for a second to book our flights! Our 15-day adventure in April 2016 took us through Santiago and Valparaiso, but the real highlight was exploring the north: the Atacama Desert, a quick jaunt into Bolivia, and, of course, the VLT south of Antofagasta…
Anyone can visit the VLT for free, provided you secure an invitation. You’ll need to plan a bit ahead and submit your request on the ESO website. The observatory welcomes visitors almost every weekend of the year, and let me tell you, it’s absolutely worth the trip! You’re allowed to snap photos and film to your heart’s content. The tour itself runs for several hours, kicking off with a video presentation before we ascend to explore the incredible facilities. It was a true delight, and I’m excited to share the journey with you through my photos.
On the road, a sign caught our eye, and my engineer heart skipped a beat: the entrance to the future E-ELT site!!! How cool is that?
Just a few kilometers later, we began our ascent, and then, around a bend, it was there, staring us down.
A few more turns and we were at the gates of Paradise… wait, no, Paranal! My mistake, though the view is certainly heavenly.
Down below: the technical installations, including power generation and the mirror aluminizing room. Pretty neat to see the guts of the operation!
A little concrete replica of an 8.2-meter mirror. And get this: there are four of these giants at the VLT!
Dad (that’s me!) was more than eager to get up there and see everything up close and personal!
And just like that, we were through the gate! First stop: the cinema room on the left for the intro video.
Some people bow down in front of cathedrals. Me? I felt the urge to do the same right here, in front of this magnificent cathedral of astronomy!
It was impossible to capture all four observatories in a single shot. Definitely needed a wider lens for that panoramic beauty!
These are the 1.8-meter Auxiliary Telescopes. ‘Auxiliary’ might imply small, but trust me, they’re still massive!
Stepping inside the Antu dome (named after the Mapuche word for ‘Sun’), we were greeted by an absolutely gigantic telescope!
They even let me sit at the controls of this colossal beast! Talk about a dream come true for an engineer-astronomer!
On our way back down, we got the incredible opportunity to visit the VLT staff residence, affectionately known as the ‘Hacienda.’ It’s this totally surreal structure, an oasis of modern architecture, right in the middle of the desert!
A huge thank you to the entire ESO team who welcomed us like royalty and made it possible to explore this extraordinary observatory under the best possible conditions. Seriously, they were amazing!
To round things off, here are a few more shots from the San Pedro de Atacama area…
And check this out: the entrance to ALMA!
