Dec 8, 2007
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I had an early day today. I was up at 6 AM and ready by 7. The breakfast was not ready as Hector had overslept. I skipped breakfast and headed to Domingo´s (Kathy´s Husband) waiting Taxi. We departed La Serena at 7:30 AM. We took route 41 from La Serena to Vicuna. The morning air was fresh and crisp. We rolled the windows half-way down to take in the breeze.
Domingo and I chatted during our drive to Vicuna. (In Spanish, of course, my limited vocabulary notwithstanding). He explained the significance of Today´s holiday. In Catholicism, there are 4 stages one goes through. Baptism, First communion, Confirmation and marriage. Today was the day of the first communion. The day is also referred to as the ´Day of Immaculate conception´.
We talked about his family, my religion and a host of other things for the next 60 or so kilometres. To reach the observatory at Cerro Tololo, one needs to take a turn-off from Route 41 before Vicuna. We travelled on this dirt road for a few kilometres before reaching the gate of the observatory. I used the term ´gate´rather loosely here as you will see.
I showed my visitor´s permit to the guard at the gate and was all set. However, we would not be allowed to go up the mountain until 9:30 AM. It was just 8:30 AM and we had an hour to Kill. We decided to visit Vicuna (20 Kilometres - 13 Miles away). I also needed to have some breakfast. Being the day of first communion, most establishments were closed. We visited a local general store and purchased 2 bottles of fruit juice. Domingo took me on a quick tour of Vicuna and we headed towards the tololo gates. We reached tololo gates around 9:15 AM. There was one other car (a couple with a young baby) waiting to get in.
We were allowed to proceed around 9:40 AM. To reach the Cerro Tololo observatory, we had to travel 23 Kilometres (15 miles) on a mountainous gravel road.The observatory is located 7200 feet above sea level. (approx. 2200 metres)
The drive up the mountain took us close to an hour. On reaching the top, we were greeted by enormous domes housing telescopes of varying diameters. There was no one to greet us or guide us. We wandered randomly into some of these domes for about 10 minutes and also spent the time taking pictures of the domes and the surrounding mountains. The sky was a perfect blue with not a wisp of white. Around 11 AM, Kadar Flores drove up in his car. After brief greetings, he proceeded to take us into one of the smaller domes and showed us one the smaller telescopes. This one had a mirror that was 1.5 Metres in diameter. We then proceeded to visit the largest telescope at Cerro Tololo - with a mirror measuring 4 metres (13 feet) in diameter.
The largest telescope at Cerro Tololo is housed in a building almost 13 storeys high. We took an elevator from the ground to the 9th storey. Kadar explained in English to me, while his colleague explained to the other couple (they were from Santiago) and to my driver in Spanish. The telescopes are Cerro Tololo are funded by NSF (National Science Foundation) and NOAO (National Optical Astronomers Organization) and are for research purposed only. There are no eyepieces for the Hoi polloi to peek at a distant nebula and ´wow´ themselves. Data collected from their telescopes are fed directly to a computer and analyzed by astronomers. The telescopes and the domes are motorized and can be controlled to a very precise degree (Hours, Minutes and Seconds). Kadur rotated the dome opening and the telescope itself (where the smaller - 1.5M diameter - telescope was located)
The largest telescope in the world is 8 Meters in diameter and is located at the Paranal observatory situated 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Antofagasta (itself 1000 Km North of La Serena). We were also taken to the data capturing centre and show some videos.
There are plans to build a telescope with a mirror 30 Metres (100 feet) in diameter. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be able to capture astronomical details in colour and will be connected to a camera that will have a resolution of 3 GP (Yes, 3 BILLION Pixels or GIGA Pixels). The sensor for this camera will measure about 2 Feet in Diameter. Now, I guess I can never get over my Sensor envy!
Although Kadur is no astronomer, he is a passionate amateur and this enthusiasm shows. We finished the tour around 12:30 and started on our drive back to La Serena. As my small contribution to this scientific effort, I purchased a small souvenir from their gift shop!
On reaching route 41, we took a short detour to observe a dam called PUCLARO. Upon Domingo insistence, I tried COPAO (the Cactus Fruit). If you take it with Azucar (Sugar to you) it is quite good. By nature, it has a sour taste.
We got back to L Serena around 2:30 PM. I paid Domingo CLP 30000 (US$ 63) and thanked him. I found a local coffee shop (the only place open today with ANY kind of food) and had a late breakfast! (Toast, tea, Juice, Cake etc.)
I visited the TALINAY tour agency and booked myself on a tour to the Mamalluca Observatory later that evening. This is the observatory where tourists can actually observe the sky will smaller telescopes (mirror diameters of 15 inches). The tour for Mamalluca starts from La Serena at 7 PM and returns to La Serena after Midnight. The Mamalluca observatory is located past Vicuna. So I guess I will be traversing the same route (more or less) twice today.I walked to the beach at La Serena. It takes about 30 minutes to walk from the City Centre to the Beach. I spent around 20 minutes at the beach and took a few pictures. At the end, I decided to take a taxi back to the Hotel (CLP 1500).
After a short siesta (I am getting into the habit now), I was ready when the shuttle to Mamalluca arrived at 7 PM. In addition to myself, there was an English/Irish couple who were doing the tour. We travelled in a car to Mamalluca. The couple were travelling for 4 months and we chatted a bit during the drive. We reached Vicuna around 8:30 PM. We had a short break and proceeded to Mamalluca (10 Kilometres away). We were dropped at the observatory and the driver informed us that he would be back to pick us up at 11 PM.
There were 3 groups of 15 people each. 2 of these groups had English guides and 1 had a Spanish guide. Luiz (our guide) started by pointing the various stars and constellations in the sky. As darkness increased, the night sky over mamalluca was simply spectacular. Never had I seen so many stars, nebula and galaxies in the sky. Each of the groups congregated around one of the smaller telescopes and took turns observing the sky.
Each of the groups also took turns at the main observatory and attending multi-media presentations as well. We moved to the main observatory (15 Inches in diameter) and Luiz guided the telescope as well the dome opening to show us the Magellanic clouds (galaxies) and Messier 31 (part of Andromeda Galaxy). We also watched the Satellite IRIDIUM-15 pass by in he sky.
The Video/Multi-media presentation was quite fascinating. Luiz provided us to a site called "Starrynight.com" which provides an excellent software program to observe and night sky. He also informed us of a Meteor Shower on December 13.
He told us as to how the astronomers are racing to create bigger and bigger telescopes. Some of these names he mentioned were quite funny. One is of course, the VLT (Very Large Telescope) at Paranal. There is another one being planned called OWL. (The expanded names escapes me at the moment).
I am singularly amazed by these highly enthusiastic amateur astronomers. I am glad I discovered, planned and stayed in La Serena. Anyone with remote interest in Astronomy should definitely visit La Serena.
We were picked up at 11 PM and driven back to La Serena and dropped off at our respective hotels. Our driver was from Vicuna! To think that he started the drive at 5 PM or so to drive to La Serena to pick us up and drove us to Mamalluca and dropped us back at La Serena. And he still had an hour plus of driving before he got home and went to bed. And to think that some of our lives are bad!
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