Chile has a unique geography. Stringbeaning over 4000 kilometers north to south and only 400 kilometers wide is only part of it. It also contains some of the highest and driest mountains in the world. The Andes Cordillera rises up to almost 7000 meters and thanks to the Humboldt Current carrying cold Antarctic waters almost to the equator, precipitation is very low. The combination of aridity and few clouds means the country and the range are the best places in the world for astronomy. Because of the convergence of favorable conditions for astronomy, by 2030, Chile will host nearly 70% of the world's astronomical infrastructure, virtually all of it in the northern third of the country.
As an American astronomer, I'd long dreamed of looking up at Chilean skies. In December 2022, my dream came true as I had the good fortune to be part of a group visiting several major observatories in Chile. The Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program (ACEAP) is a collaboration between Associated Universities Inc. (AUI) and Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), and the observatories they manage in Chile. ACEAP's goals are for ambassadors to learn firsthand about Chilean astronomy and then to share that experience with others. Institutions involved in one way or the other in locations we visited include the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory) and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Many ambassadors are amateurs active in outreach or formal and informal astronomy educators at planetaria and schools.
We were able to see and learn about the Cerro Tololo InterAmerican Observatory (CTIO), Gemini South, Vera Rubin Observatory and ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array).
The trip from Albuquerque through Dallas to Santiago took most of a day. The nine-hour flight from the US to Chile was at night. I spent much of my waking time looking at clusters of lights in remote places like the Yucatan and spotting Canopus and Archenar. Dawn came while airborne and dramatically revealed the mountains to the east. The Andes - numero uno in astronomy!
After enjoying a bit of Santiago in the Vitacura district, then a day of orientation at AUI's Chilean headquarters, the ambassadors flew to the coastal city of La Serena. Here CTIO has offices and many who work at the observatories located 100 km away to the east live here. I couldn't resist exploring the Pacific Ocean, only 100 yards from our hotel.