Chile And Telescopes Are A Match Made In Heaven
The South American country is home to the Andes Mountains and the Atacama Desert, places that have some of the stillest and driest air in the world. That makes them ideal for astronomy.
On July 2, the path of a total solar eclipse took it over the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Even though that observatory is designed to study the night sky, it nonetheless made an idea spot to watch the Moon's shadow sweep east across the nearby Pacific Ocean.
While in Chile to cover the eclipse, I decided to visit some of the many other observatories that have made their home in the Chilean mountains. I picked three. Here's a snapshot of what they do and what makes them so valuable to the worlds of astronomy
