El Tololo Observatory -La Serena Port Excur

[efghi9]

Has anyone done a tour of the El Tololo Observatory. Was it informative? Was it a ship excursion (I am on Infinity) or through a private tour company, if so which company. I have located one private tour PortCompass, but it is even more expensive than ship tour. Any other thoughts comments welcome. thank you in advance. We are two people Mom and son (aged 10 yrs). March 2012

[babblefish]

In 2008 we took a HAL excursion to the observatory while sailing from San Diego to Valparaiso. It was a great day and the observatory staff showed great affection they have for their work. If you like science and astronomy you will enjoy the trip. At Cerro Tololo there is the 4m Blanco telescope, we were able to visit inside that observatory, see the operations area and were shown a video of the accomplishments with the 4m Blanco reflector. Also you can see from Cerro Tololo, Cerro Pachon with the SOAR and Gemini observatories. The unique thing about that is the Gemini is the southern "twin" of the scope on Mauna Kea.

 

I would avoid the private tour if your cruise line has a shore excursion booked to Cerro Tololo. It is more difficult and expensive to do this privately unless you are connected to one of the organizations affiliated with the observatory. Also our excursion served us a great local meal near Vicuna and gave us one hour to browse around in town. It was educational and fun and will give you a perspective of the geography, its amazing to see how arid things are away from the coast and river.

 

If you book a trip which also stops further north I highly recommend a trip to Lauca National Park (from Arica) or any excursion which visits the altiplano. We did a private tour but you may feel more comfortable with a ship tour. Read up on the altiplano, you may find it to be as exciting as visiting Cerro Tololo. There is a big difference in altitude though, Cerro Tololo is around 7200 feet, Lauca NP is 14,500!