Las Estrellas

Last night we went stargazing, heading out with a tour at 9pm. Alan, the propieter, is a French astronomer who has lived in Chile now for many years. We arrived and his wife Alejandra gave us a great explanation of where we were in the galaxy as well as explained some basic information about the Milky Way, and how we can look at the sky.

We then walked inside their house and sat in a circular room while Alan prepped us for what we would be seeing through their 6 large telescopes.

It is hard to describe what the sky looked like last night, except to say that I doubt I will ever again see so many stars so clearly, and throughout the entire sky. Usually, because of pollution or humidity, we never see stars that are directly on the horizon - we usually start being able to see them about 15 degrees above. Last night, however, everywhere you looked there were stars, and of course with the telescopes, the places that looked empty were also in fact completely full of stars.

We also got to see SATURN and JUPITER!!!! and the Southern Cross, the Triangle, Scorpio, the Centaur, nebulas, spiral galaxies, star clusters, etc etc. I am so excited to be able to add to my constellation knowledge, especially since I knew nothing about the Southern Sky.

Supposedly, the southern sky is more beautiful because statistically it has a higher concentration of everything, and I believe it may be true. With our naked eye, with the best conditions, we are able to see about 6,000 stars, and I believe I saw every single one of them last night. What a glorious sight.