Chile, April 4-11, 2002
I went to Chile on an observing run for the Deep Ecliptic Survey project, which is a search for Kuiper Belt Objects. The Cerro Tololo Observatory is located in the mountains about an hour away from La Serena, which is about a 50-minute flight north of Santiago. I spent the trip mostly working very hard, but I stole a few moments to explore the bouldering on the mountaintop and spent a day in Coquimbo.
One of the telescopes.
View down the mountain to the dormitories and other support buildings.
Taking some time to read in the sun.
Bouldering on the weathered volcanic tuff.
The telescopes at sunset.
Near the center of the image here, kind of hard to find, is a furry animal that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a squirrel.
One of many beautiful sunsets.
Some smaller telescopes.
Venus, the small point of light that isn't an artifact from my beat-up camera. Later in the night, when it was setting, it glowed a deep blood red; it was very beautiful.
Another sunset picture.
The 4-meter telescope. It doesn't look huge in the picture because there's nothing for scale, but it is pretty big.
This funny picture was taken through a small telescope set up to spy on a nearby mountaintop at the construction of a 4-meter SOAR telescope and the 8-meter Gemini.
Looking up from the base of a big huge cross in Coquimbo.
Herons on the water in Coquimbo.
©2006 Amy Jordan; Email Me.