Chile can be considered the Astronomy capital of the world. At present (2011)^[1], Chile is home to 42% of the world's astronomy infrastructure of telescopes, and by 2018 it will contain 70% of the global infrastructure. In the Atacama desert region in north, the skies are exceptionally clear and dry for more than 300 days a year. These optimal conditions have led the world's scientific community to develop in the Atacama desert the most ambitious astronomical projects in the history of mankind^[2][3]

Chile welcomes a diverse and active astronomical community that includes Chilean and international professionals and others, such as astronomers, engineers, students, teachers and amateurs.

The first documented testimony of an astronomical measurement done in Chile is the observation of a lunar eclipse by the soldier Pedro Cuadrado Chavino (June 1582)^[4]. He used a classic greek method to obtain the latitude of the city of Valdivia based on the eclipse's measurements. In 1849, during the government of Manuel Bulnes, a scientific mission of the U.S. navy run by James M. Gilliss arrived to Chile for observing Venus and Mars to calculate the Earth-Sun distance. The Gilliss mission established the first astronomical observatory in the Cerro Santa Lucia (Santiago). In 1852, the facilities were transferred to Chile and the National Astronomical Observatory was created^[5]. During the second half of the XXth century, the U.S. and European observatories were installed in different locations of the north of the country^[6]: La Silla, Cerro Tololo, Las Campanas and later Cerro Paranal, Cerro Pachon and Chajnantor.

Chilean Astronomical Institutions

Professional astronomy

• Center for Excellence in Astrophysics and Associated Technologies, CATA Spanish & English

CATA is the largest Chilean project of R&D in astronomy s technologies. It s located in Cal n Hill (Cerro Cal n), in Santiago, Chile. This center brings together the largest amount of astronomers in Chile from three universities: Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Cat lica de Chile and Universidad de Concepci n. CATA develop nine different areas: 6 focused in scientific research, 3 focused on technology advances, and 1 of Education & Outreach (to students, teachers and general public).

• Millennium Center for Supernova Science Spanish & English

This Center its mainly dedicated to supernovae research, it gathers astronomers from: Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Cat lica de Chile and Universidad Andr s Bello.

• Center of Astrophysics FONDAP Spanish
• Centre of Astrophysics Valparaiso
• Chilean Astronomical Society (SOCHIAS)

Northern Chile

• Astronomy Group, University of La Serena
• Program in Physics mention in Astronomy, Universidad Cat lica del Norte

Central Chile

• Astronomy Department, Universidad de Chile (Spanish & English)
• Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Universidad Cat lica de Chile.
• Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Valpara so
• Departamento de Astronom a Universidad Andr s Bello. (Spanish)
• Group of Earth and Space Science, University of Santiago.

Southern Chile

• Astronomy Department, Universidad de Concepci n. (Spanish and English)

Amateur astronomy

• Cerro Los Condores Observatory (Atacama Region)
• Cerro Mayu Observatory (Coquimbo Region)
• Cerro Mamalluca Observatory (Coquimbo Region)
• Cerro Collowara Observatory (Coquimbo Region)
• Astronomical Society of Valparaiso and Vi a (SAVAL) (Valparaiso Region)
• Department of Astronomy (RASTRO), University of Concepcion (Bio-Bio Region)
• Chilean Association of Astronomy and Astronautics (ACHAYA) (Metropolitan Region)
• Metropolitan Amateur Astronomical Society (Metropolitan Region)

International astronomical institutions in Chile

• Carnegie Observatories
• European Southern Observatory (ESO)
• National Optical Astronomical Observatories [NOAO], USA)
• National Radioastronomical Observatories (NRAO, USA)

Observatories

Existing facilities

Picture of La Silla Observatory taken from Las Campanas Observatory

• Chilean National Astronomical Observatory (Spanish)
• Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory: NOAO telescopes, SMART consortium, GONG, PROMPT, ALPACA.
• Cerro Pachon Observatory: Gemini Observatory, SOAR Telescope.
• Llano de Chajnantor Observatory: Cosmic Background Imager (CBI), Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), Q/U Imaging ExperimenT QUIET,
• Pampa La Bola and Purico Complex: Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE), NANTEN2 Observatory
• Paranal Observatory: Very Large Telescope (VLT), Visible & Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA Telescope).
• Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)
• La Silla Observatory: ESO telescopes,
• Las Campanas Observatory: Carnegie telescopes, Magellan telescopes, Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network
• Cerro El Roble Observatory
• Manuel Foster Observatory
• TIGO (Transportable Integrated Geodetic Observatory)

Future facilities

• Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) to be located at Las Campanas Observatory.
• European Extremely Large Telescope: not confirmed location.
• Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) to be located in Cerro Pachon Observatory (El Pe n).
• Overwhelmingly Large Telescope: not confirmed location. Potential sites in Chile are located in Antofagasta region.

Further information on Extremely large telescope.

Light pollution

• Light Pollution Office '''(OPCC)''': depends on the Comision Nacional de Medio Ambiente (CONAMA) and the international observatories.
• IDA-Chile: National section of the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).

Education

Undergraduate programs

• Astronomy Bachelor (Universidad de Chile)
• Astronomy Bachelor (Pontificia Universidad Cat lica de Chile)
• Astronomy Bachelor (Universidad de Concepcion)
• Bachelor in Phyiscs, mention in Astronomy (Universidad de Valpara so)
• Bachelor in Physics with mention in Astronomy (Universidad Andr s Bello)
• Bachelor in Phyiscs, mention in Astronomy (Universidad de la Serena)
• Bachelor in Phyiscs, mention in Astronomy (Universidad Cat lica del Norte)

Graduate programs

• Master in Astronomy (Universidad de Chile)
• Ph.D. in Astronomy (Universidad de Chile)
• Master in Astronomy (Pontificia Universidad Cat lica de Chile)
• Ph.D in Astronomy (Pontificia Universidad Cat lica de Chile)
• Master in Astronomy (Universidad de Concepci n)
• Ph.D. in Astronomy (Universidad de Concepci n)

School programs

• CADIAS
• Education and Outreach. Astronomy Department, University of Concepcion.

People

Professional astronomers

In Chile

In Chile are more than 100 astronomers^[7], some are:

• Mario Hamuy (Universidad de Chile). Main Research Areas: Supernovae, Distance Scale, Observational Cosmology. Main Awards: Guggenheim Scholarship (2011) Hamuy is the second most cited scientist in Chile, and the most cited Chilean astronomer according to is SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System. (Until June 2011)
• Jos Maza (Universidad de Chile). Main Research Area: Supernovae. Main Award: National Prize for Exact Sciences (1999)
• Mar a Teresa Ruiz (Universidad de Chile): Main Research Area: Brown Dwarfs. Main Award: National Prize for Exact Sciences (1997)
• Guido Garay (Universidad de Chile) Main Research Area: Star Formation
• Luis Barrera, (UMCE)
• Leonardo Bronfman, (Universidad de Chile) Main Research Areas: Molecular Clouds, Star Formation & Galactic and Structure, Astronomical Instrumentation
• Alejandro Clocchiatti (Universidad Cat lica) Main Research Areas: Supernova and High Performance Astronomical Computing
• Leopoldo Infante, (Pontificia Universidad Cat lica de Chile) Main Research Areas: Birth & Evolution of Structures in the Universe, Star Populations.
• Dante Minitti (Pontificia Universidad Cat lica de Chile) Main Research Area: Birth & Evolution of Structures in the Universe
• Douglas Geisler (Universidad de Concepci n)
• Wolfgang Gieren (Universidad de Concepci n)
• Marcelo Mora, (U. Valparaiso)
• Ramirez, Amelia (U. La Serena): dynamics and evolution of galaxies, galaxy groups and clusters.

Chilean astronomers overseas

Engineers

• Seguel, Juan (CTIO): site testing of potentian astronomical places.

Amateur astronomers and teachers

• Gomez, Arturo: discoverer of the Gomez's Hamburger, a protoplanetary disk around a young low mass star.
• Jimenez, Carmen Gloria: teacher and psychologist working as Educational and Outreach Expert for the Astronomy Department of the Universidad de Concepcion. She is widely known for participating in the NASA's program "Teachers in Space" with chances to visit the International Space Station or participate as ground-based support for space missions of teachers.^[8]
• Picetti, Battista: physics and astronomy teacher in the Seminario Conciliar de La Serena. He won the Michael Faraday Award for the Best Physics Teacher in 2007. Father Picetti is also the creator of El Tololito (La Serena) and Cerro Mayu Observatory^[9]

Planetariums

• Planetarium of the Universidad de Santiago (Santiago)
• Gemini's Mobible Planetariums (La Serena)

Publications and books

• Supernovas, Jos Maza, Mario Hamuy.
• Hijos de las estrellas, Maria Ruiz. ISBN 978-956-304-037-1
• Astronom a Contempor nea, Jos Maza
• Mundos lejanos, Dante Minniti.
• Con ojos de gigantes: la observaci n astron mica en el siglo XXI, L. Felipe Barrientos y Sebastian Lopez, Ediciones B. 2008

Astro-tourism

• Astronomical Tourism in Chile
• Astronomy Travel packages in Chile
• AstronomicTourism.com

Astronomy in the media and news sites

• Circulo Astronomico
• Chile_trip Yahoo! Group extensive collection of astronomy & travel resources in Chile
• thisisChile.cl - Chile Official Website - Astronomy in Chile

References

es:Astronom a en Chile