Mamalluca Observatory - Chile

, originally uploaded by m_hagen.

The place where it never rains. You don´t have to be a genius to understand why most major countries interested in Astronomy have observatories built here in the southern reaches of the Atacama desert. Mamalluca was purposefully built for tourists so, unlike the professional observatories where you can look but not touch, here you can use small telescopes with a guide to see all kinds of cool places far, far away.... I was able to see Saturn and its rings, Mars, Alpha Centuri nebuli and a few others whose names I´ve already forgotten. Something like CRG-1224. I can also pick out at least half a dozen constellations in the southern hemisphere so whenever you´re down here with me next I´ll show em to you. Saw heaps of shooting stars as well.

What I found most interesting was finding out what the Mapuche and Inka´s thought when they looked up at the stars. European´s always focused on the bright stars to create their constellations and create their myths and legends. The South American indigenous people instead found images in the dark areas between the light. These dark area´s are called carbon nebula. They block out much of the light in some corners of the night sky. When our guide pointed these images out they seemed so obvious. A large Inkan snake winding through the sky. A huge llama just below the Southern Cross. The last image we saw was a Nandu, a large flightless bird from South American. Aboriginal´s in Australia called the same shape an Emu, a relative of the Nandu. I love that thousands of years ago, people half way across the world shared the same celestial aesthetic.