Atacama Desert Sky (March 2008)

Two of the Best Astronomical Objects Some of the best sights in the night sky can only be seen from the southern hemisphere.  In addition to being located in the southern hemisphere, Chile's Atacama Desert is an ideal place for astronomy because it is the driest desert on Earth and located at a relatively high elevation.  Both of these factors make the Atacama's atmosphere exceptionally clear.  Although our trip to South America was for other purposes, we couldn't pass up the opportunity of ideal conditions to do a little astronomy.    A French astronomer and his wife run an observatory out of their home (show Google map) near San Pedro de Atacama.  We made arrangements to rent one of their telescopes (Fig. 1) for a few hours during our last night in Chile to make some photographs (Figs. 2-4).  The images included two of the best astronomical sights in either hemisphere of the night sky: the globular star cluster Omega Centauri (Fig. 3) and the Eta Carinae Nebula (Fig. 4).  Amateur astronomers consider both objects to be the best examples of their respective types. ( back to home page)		Fig. 1.  Setting up the telescope.     Technical Notes for Figs. 1-3. GPS location:  S 22 deg 57.209', W 68 deg 10.755', altitude 7886 ft (show Google map) Telescope: Takahashi FS-102 apochromatic refractor (102 mm aperture, 820 mm focal length, f/8) on Takahashi EM-200 equatorial mount. Camera:  Canon Digital Rebel SLR camera mounted at telescope's prime focus.
Fig. 2.  A test image of the Moon.  (Technical data: 1/60 s at ISO 100 and f/8.)
Fig. 3.  Omega Centauri is the best globular star cluster in the sky and Maria's favorite astronomical object.  It is a collection of millions of old stars bound together in a relatively small space by their mutual gravitational attraction.  You can think of globular star clusters as miniature galaxies.  (Technical data: 16 frames combined with Nebulosity image processing program, each frame 30 s at ISO 800 and f/8.)
Fig. 4.  The Eta Carinae Nebula is arguably the best nebula in the sky.  A nebula is an interstellar cloud of glowing gas and can be a place where new stars form.  (Technical data: 360 s at ISO 400 and f/8, telescope manually guided with illuminated reticle eyepiece.)

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