4 of 312 DOCUMENTS

The Washington Post

June 10, 2001, Sunday, Final Edition

SECTION: TRAVEL; Pg. E11

LENGTH: 810 words

HEADLINE: In Chile, Starry, Starry Nights

BODY:

We'd flown to the Pacific Coast resort of La Serena in Chile's "Little North" to see what were billed as the "clearest skies in the hemisphere" and to do some serious stargazing, but when we arrived, the city was covered with a blanket of clouds.

"Don't worry," the woman at the airport car rental counter said. "If you drive into the Elqui Valley, the sun will be out."

How right she was. Disbelieving, we headed east toward the Andes mountain chain, which runs the length of Chile. After a half-hour of driving over the rolling hills of the coastal range, along the vineyards and papaya farms bordering the Elqui River and past the huge lake formed by the Puclaro Dam, there was not a speck of a cloud to be seen. The sky was a brilliant dark blue.

(The clear skies are caused by several factors. The Pacific's cool Humboldt current brings low clouds to the coast, but as the wet air rises up the coastal mountains, it loses moisture. The result: The area between the coastal range and the Andes is one of the driest deserts in the world.)

Because of these weather conditions and the thin air at higher altitudes, which makes it easier to view the stars, the region is an astronomer's paradise. We visited two of the half-dozen astronomical observatories that dot the region.

Our first stop was Cerro El Tololo Inter-American Observatory, an important scientific institution about a 45-minute drive east of La Serena. The tour begins with a hair-raising drive up a steep, winding dirt road to the top of El Tololo mountain, 7,500 feet above sea level. Indeed, drivers are only allowed up the winding, steep road one by one -- with strict instructions not to stop or overtake other cars.

Atop the mountain, we parked beside a huge domed building housing one of the observatory's seven large telescopes. An eagle circled slowly a few feet above our heads. To the east were the snow-covered Andes, to the west, the clouds covering the coast, and on all sides the Andean foothills.

Guides led us into a telescope building, where we were told that the instruments are no longer used to look directly at stars. Instead, astronomers watch computer screens to analyze data gathered by the telescopes. We were shown how the telescope and the dome covering it are rotated by a powerful motor to focus on the spot in the sky an astronomer wants to study. After moving to another building, we received a primer on the observatory's largest telescope, with a four-meter mirror.

Fascinating, but we never did get to look at the stars.

That was remedied the next night when we drove to a small community observatory called Mamalluca, sponsored by the town of Vicuna, about 15 minutes east of El Tololo. There, visitors on nighttime tours are welcome to peer through two telescopes (much smaller than El Tololo's). Or they can just stand outside and enjoy unparalleled views of the Milky Way, home of our own galaxy; constellations like the Southern Cross, not visible in Washington; and other astronomical marvels, including the large Magellanic Cloud of stars and whirling gases.

In contrast to El Tololo, Mamalluca is a modest observatory in a building about the size of a suburban community center. It was built on the initiative of local amateur astronomers when the region's large observatories asked the town to install special light fixtures to cut down on "light pollution" that threatened to hinder their work. In exchange, they arranged for help in constructing the town's own observatory. El Tololo donated an unused dome.

One of these local astronomers was our guide. First, he presented a spectacular slide show describing in simple terms and images the origin of the universe, the birth and death of stars and the formation of galaxies.

Then, at long last, it was time for the real thing. As we peered through the observatory's small telescopes, the wonders he had described finally came to life.

-- Terri Shaw

Reservations for the free El Tololo tours, conducted on Saturdays, should be made by telephone 011-56-51-205-200 or fax 011-56-51-205-212, at least a month in advance, especially during the Southern Hemisphere summer (December through March) when La Serena is a popular vacation spot. Visitors must provide their own transportation, confirm their reservations and pick up tickets in La Serena the week before the tour. The observatory's Web site is www.ctio.noao.edu. The information about visits is in Spanish.

Reservations for the Mamalluca tour can be made at the observatory's headquarters in Vicuna, but during the Chilean summer they should be made several weeks in advance. There is a modest fee. Its Web site (in Spanish) is www.angelfire.com/wy /obsermamalluca/principal.html.

For info on travel to Chile: Chile Tourism Office, 800-244-5366, www.visitchile.org.

LOAD-DATE: June 10, 2001