Rambling Readers

ESO

A moving story behind a beautiful snapshot of #Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS:

“We took the photograph while we were en route from northern #Chile to Santiago, travelling to attend the first workshop on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Chilean astronomical community at ESO-Vitacura. Little did we know that this journey would present us with a once-in-a-lifetime observational opportunity!

The flight was delayed, and as the plane ascended, the timing coincided perfectly with sunset. By pure coincidence, the window seat in our row was unoccupied, providing us an unobstructed view of the breathtaking landscape below. It was then that we noticed a faint but unmistakable glow in the sky: Comet C/2024 G3 Atlas!

Eager to share this spectacle, we informed the flight attendants, who promptly passed on the news to the pilots. They were as enthusiastic as us, and they made an announcement to the passengers, describing the …

A moving story behind a beautiful snapshot of #Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS:

“We took the photograph while we were en route from northern #Chile to Santiago, travelling to attend the first workshop on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Chilean astronomical community at ESO-Vitacura. Little did we know that this journey would present us with a once-in-a-lifetime observational opportunity!

The flight was delayed, and as the plane ascended, the timing coincided perfectly with sunset. By pure coincidence, the window seat in our row was unoccupied, providing us an unobstructed view of the breathtaking landscape below. It was then that we noticed a faint but unmistakable glow in the sky: Comet C/2024 G3 Atlas!

Eager to share this spectacle, we informed the flight attendants, who promptly passed on the news to the pilots. They were as enthusiastic as us, and they made an announcement to the passengers, describing the rare sight visible outside the plane. The pilots dimmed the cabin lights and even turned off the wing lights to enhance visibility, allowing everyone onboard to experience the comet in its full glory.

The cabin was filled with awe as passengers took pictures of the comet. This moment was a testament to how celestial events can bring people together, even at 30,000 feet!”

🥲

Thanks for sharing this wonderful image and story, Virginia Cuomo from the Astronomy Department of La Serena University in Chile and the Chilean Astronomical Society, and Annagrazia Puglisi from the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Southampton!

📷 Annagrazia Puglisi

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #space #science

A view from an airplane window during twilight, showing the wing silhouetted against the sky. A comet –a white elongated smudge– hovers above the horizon, surrounded by scattered stars. Below, faint city lights dot the dark landscape.

ESO

1/ ☄️ #Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is gracing our skies, and we’d like to share some amazing images from our Paranal Observatory in #Chile!

This stunning shot by our friend Yuri Beletsky, with the comet next to an Auxiliary Telescope, is today's Astronomy Picture of the Day. Congrats, Yuri!

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography

A sunset photograph at an observatory. The colour of the sky changes from blue, almost purple, to golden at the horizon. There’s a white closed telescope dome with a spherical top. To its left, the comet stretches diagonally across almost the entire image, as if it had been painted on the sky with a gigantic brush. The tail of the comet is white and full of intricate filaments.

ESO

New laser-sharp vision for Paranal’s facilities! 😎

In this image, you see the first of nine new lasers that are being built for our Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction, and Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), both located at Paranal in #Chile

The laser projection systems are being built in the Netherlands, and the first one has now successfully passed a review by our engineers ✅ 🎉

🤔 But why do telescopes need lasers? They excite sodium atoms high up in the atmosphere, creating artificial "stars". By monitoring these "stars" we can measure and correct atmospheric turbulence in real time with a fast deformable mirror, obtaining very sharp images!

📷 ESO/TNO/Demcon/Fred Kamphues

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #space #science #technology

At the centre of the image, a big square machine is standing, its top part a closed grey box, containing a laser, resting on top of an illuminated network of intricate machinery. It is standing on a yellow slider. To the right of the machine, a man wearing safety goggles and gloves is standing on a stepping ladder, installing a part on a big black vertical tube, as high as he is, attached to the back of the square machine. On top, the tube is glowing yellow.

Dr. John Barentine FRAS

"This chapter explores the natural #commons through a novel lens—the movement to protect dark night skies—and acknowledges long histories in #Chile of astronomy research conducted by #Indigenous peoples, community organizations, and university scientists."
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-75690-0_7

#DarkSkies #LightPollution

ESO

The skies of Chile’s Atacama Desert, renowned as the darkest and clearest of the world, are now at risk from an industrial megaproject.

Electricity company AES Andes proposed to locate a large-scale industrial complex just a few kilometres away from our Paranal Observatory. If constructed, the resulting dust emissions, increased atmospheric turbulence, and especially light #pollution, would irreparably impact the capabilities for astronomical observation.

We urge the involved parties, specifically AES Andes, to work with the Government of #Chile to relocate this megaproject to a zone compatible with industrial development without jeopardising the skies of Paranal.

📷 ESO/P. Horálek

#environment #astrodon #astronomy #science

A view of the Milky Way arching across the night sky above the Atacama Desert in Chile. The foreground features the buildings of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), with a person standing on a raised platform. A sign saying "skies at risk" is overlaid on the image.

Juan Carlos Muñoz

#SilentSunday #astrophotography #astronomy #chile

A night photograph of a telescope under the stars. The telescope dome is white and looks like an eggcup, with part of the telescope frame sticking out of the top. The sky is crowded with countless stars. The Milky Way –a dense band of stars– stretches vertically above the telescope, as if the telescope was a chimney with white celestial smoke coming out it. The Milky way is sprinkled with pink nebulae and dark clouds of cosmic dust.

Juan Carlos Muñoz

Going through some old pics and yeah, I had some dope views of the Andes from my balcony back when I lived in #Chile 🤩 I never got tired of seeing El Plomo bathed in the golden #sunset light.

#photography #LandscapePhotography

A snow-capped mountain partially enshrouded in clouds. The clouds and the snow have a golden tint due to the Sun, which is behind the camera.

ESO

ALMA observes some of the coldest objects in the Universe... from a place that is often very cold! The Chajnantor Plateau in #Chile, 5000 m above sea level, is one of the driest places on Earth – perfect for the kind of observations that ALMA performs, which can be hampered by water vapour in the atmosphere. But #snow sometimes pays a visit!

More about this image: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2452a/

📷 S. Otarola/ESO

#astrodon #astronomy #astrophysics #science

A radio telescope stands in the middle of the image, taking up most of the space.

It stands in white snow, against a completely clouded, light gray sky.

The huge dish of the antenna is aimed to the right, its metallic brown-gray inside curve showing, the bottom third of it covered in white snow.

Behind the antenna, parts of other similar antennas are showing.

Francis Mangion (M)

ESO
(@)esoastronomy(@)astrodon.social

#Introduction Hi #fediverse ! We’re the European Southern Observatory, and we design, build and operate ground-based telescopes.

One of them is our Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in #Chile. It will have a 39 m mirror, and its rotating enclosure will weigh 6100 tonnes, or about 700 mastodons!

We’re looking forward to chatting with all of you about #astronomy

📷 ESO/G. Vecchia

ESO

#Introduction Hi #fediverse ! We’re the European Southern Observatory, and we design, build and operate ground-based telescopes.

One of them is our Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in #Chile. It will have a 39 m mirror, and its rotating enclosure will weigh 6100 tonnes, or about 700 mastodons!

We’re looking forward to chatting with all of you about #astronomy

📷 ESO/G. Vecchia

#astrodon #astrophysics #space #science

The giant metal frame of a dome takes up most of the picture frame, contrasting with the brown hills and a thin horizontal line of blue sky in the background. The dome's frame is not yet fully covered in the middle, so the dark brown landscape behind it shows. The big opening in the dome's roof shows the interior, still a construction site with a structure of white beams. In front of the big building is one red crane, taller than the dome.

Juan Carlos Muñoz

1/ Happy 15th birthday, VISTA! The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, located at Paranal Observatory in #Chile, has been tirelessly mapping huge areas of the sky at infrared wavelengths. Its camera VIRCAM has captured stunning infrared vistas (see what I did there?) of our galaxy and beyond such as these: https://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/search/?facility=30

📷 G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO

#astrodon #astronomy #space #science

An image of a telescope inside its dome. The telescope is an open cylindrical structure with a 4-m wide primary mirror. The dome is partially open; it's daytime outside, and the dome's opening reveals a few other telescopes perched on a distant hill.

Juan Carlos Muñoz

Don't tell anyone, but we have a Stargate at ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile

#scifi #tv #movies

📷 ESO/G.Hüdepohl

A scene from the movie Stargate. There's a screen with a symbol that looks like an inverted V with a circle on top. A hand holding a sharpie is doodling on the screen.

A photograph of the Atacama Desert. Smooth ochre hills extend to the horizon. In the background there's a triangle shaped mountain covered in snow, with the full moon rising behind it, resembling the symbol in the previous image in this post. The entire image is bathed in golden sunset tones.

Juan Carlos Muñoz

1/ Work is progressing well on the central tower of ESO's Extremely Large Telescope in #Chile 's Atacama Desert. The ELT has a 5-mirror design, and three of them will be housed in the tower you see here. The M4 and M5 mirrors are particularly important to deliver sharp images, as they will counteract atmospheric turbulence and vibrations due to wind or the telescope's mechanisms.

➡️ https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2448a/?lang

📷 ESO/F. Carrasco (CHEPOX)

#astrodon #astronomy #space #engineering #science

This photo shows a construction site. A skeleton frame forming a tower takes up most of the frame. Its white steel beams contrast sharply against the bright blue sky behind it. Beams attached in V-shapes form a cylinder in five layers, its diameter becoming smaller towards the top. Scaffolding and concrete blocks are standing inside the skeleton. To the right of the skeleton frame, a person is standing on a crane platform, inspecting the construction at two thirds of its height. The skeleton frame is more than five times his height. Another person is standing inside the tower skeleton.

Juan Carlos Muñoz

Flashback to an observing run I did back in 2015 at the lovely du Pont 2.5m telescope in Las Campanas Observatory, #Chile

#astrodon #astronomy #space

A serene sunset photograph of a white telescope dome on a hill covered with grass and small rocks. To the left of the telescope, the setting Sun tints the landscape in golden shades. A few wispy clouds are scattered in the blue sky above.

fiona and marc

I have to tell you a bit more about the day we crossed the Argentine-Chilean border... 🇦🇷 —> 🇨🇱

You know already from the previous posts that we started that day from Villa la Angostura. When we reached the Argentinian 🇦🇷 border post we had already cycled 27 km (+ 660h.m.). The exit was quick and easy 😅
To reache the Chilean border post we would had to cycle a 38 km stretch over the Paso Cardenal Antonio Samoré at an altitude of 1,305 meters 🚵‍♀️ 🚵 I was uncertain if we could make it to Chile that day, but after lunch in the sun, we continued. The uphill cycling was tiring. As we ascended, the landscape changed; we saw snow alongside the road, and the vegetation became barren.
By 4 PM, I finally reached the pass, where Marc was waiting for me, as I was much slower than he …

I have to tell you a bit more about the day we crossed the Argentine-Chilean border... 🇦🇷 —> 🇨🇱

You know already from the previous posts that we started that day from Villa la Angostura. When we reached the Argentinian 🇦🇷 border post we had already cycled 27 km (+ 660h.m.). The exit was quick and easy 😅
To reache the Chilean border post we would had to cycle a 38 km stretch over the Paso Cardenal Antonio Samoré at an altitude of 1,305 meters 🚵‍♀️ 🚵 I was uncertain if we could make it to Chile that day, but after lunch in the sun, we continued. The uphill cycling was tiring. As we ascended, the landscape changed; we saw snow alongside the road, and the vegetation became barren.
By 4 PM, I finally reached the pass, where Marc was waiting for me, as I was much slower than he was.
We decided to cover the final 22 km to the Chilean border post before it closed (we thought it closed at 5 PM). As quickly as possible — despite the very bad road conditions that made it challenging to maintain speed — we raced down the mountain and arrived at the border post at 4:56 PM.
To our surprise, we learned that the post would remain open until 6 PM. So we had enough time to eat our leftover fresh food: a carrot, a tomato, and an apple, before crossing. Bringing fresh food like vegetables 🥕 fruits 🍓 dairy 🍶 meat 🍖 eggs 🥚honey 🍯 etc., is absolutely forbidden. We passed through several checkpoints, they issued a document for bringing our bikes into the country, and we had to fill out a declaration stating that we had no prohibited items with us 🫣 After a dog sniffed our bikes, we successfully entered Chile with honey in our bag 😇
Already on the race down from the mountain pass we enjoyed how the landscape changed back to green and vivid nature. Really amazing!
Not far from the border, we found a suitable camp-spot 🏕️
Dinner was simple: pasta with tomato sauce from a tetrapack, as we had no fresh ingredients...

#cycling #bikepacking #patagonia #argentina #chile