02/07/2020
Exactly a year ago we were with the FarOutTrails (DMC) team (https://www.instagram.com/farouttrails/) and a group of 100 passengers of Intrepid Group at the Villaseca soccer field, a small town located in the Elqui Valley opposite to Vicuña: https://goo.gl/maps/W1bbVFa2KvnW843E9
Northern Chile is becoming the astronomical eyes of the world, The Atacama Desert and The Elqui Valley have perfect conditions for big observatories.
After a two-year of scouting, we found the perfect location to see an eclipse of unique characteristics; we had to consider the low altitude of the astronomical phenomenon and the geography of the Elqui Valley, which is very narrow and located in the middle of the mountains. There is an only road from La Serena on the coast of the Pacific Ocean till the valley well known for the Pisco production and the clear skies.
The Elqui Valley has a very dry climate, and perfect conditions for the astronomical observation, because of that the whole valley is full of observatories to enjoy the night sky, the milky way, and the southern constellations. This part of Chile is home of huge telescopes like Cerro Tololo Observatory http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/
La Silla Observatory, located in La Higuera, is very near and was of course another option to see the eclipse. https://www.eso.org/public/chile/tele...
Mamalluca Observatory https://mamallucavicuna.cl/
El Pangue Observatory https://observatoriodelpangue.blogspo...
As you can see in the video, we organized the passengers in a diagonal line that divided the football field so nobody interferes with the experience of the rest of the group, as Astronomer John Mason suggested; he was in charge of the group and you can hear his voice describing the phenomenon.
This is the most beautiful thing that I ever witnessed; pure beauty, and because of the knowledge and generosity of Dr. John Mason we were being able to really appreciate all the changes that a generates in the earth. The shadow bands were impressive, clearly visible in the ground, and the solar corona was huge, bigger than I ever imagined, it was a "sunset" eclipse, breathtaking.
Thanks to everybody involved in this experience!