bakerstreet

We'll be in a Santiago hotel for two nights prior to a cruise, in December. We (four of us) would like to experience a nighttime visit to an observatory to look through telescopes and hear about what we see. The best skies for stargazing appear to be north of Santiago; I know an observatory in the Elqui Valley was named the first Dark Sky Sanctuary a few years ago. There appear to be many observatories, in various locations, but some are open to the public, some are not, some are only on some days, etc., and we would need transportation there and back.

Does anyone know of a tour guide, or company, offering tours that would pick us up from our hotel, drive us to a good observatory that would have our time looking through telescopes reserved for us, teach us about what we are seeing, and then drive us back again to our hotel?

I'm hoping to avoid having to research every observatory to learn when (if) it accepts visitors, rent a car, etc. If there is a resource offering such excursions, I'd prefer simply to join one. We won't have much time in Santiago, but we'd like to be astrotourists even for one night!

kanadajin

I'm afraid I do not have any specific recommendation for you, perhaps others may chime in.

However there are some considerations related to your question that you may or may not already be aware of:
- the Elqui valley is definitely not an option in your case due to its distance from Santiago. It takes approximately 6-7 hours to drive there and obviously same to get back.
- there may be smaller observatories in the near vicinity of Santiago (associated with universities for ex.), but some considerations for viewing conditions would be the amount of light pollution from this large city, and also of atmospheric air pollution which may limit what you are able to actually see. Many of them I would also expect to be reserved for students/teachers/researchers.
- another important consideration would be the phase of the moon on the days that you will actually be on location. If it is anywhere near a full moon, you may not get to see all that much, in fact many observatories (including in the Elqui valley) actually suspend visits during that time. Obviously conditions are more optimal near the new moon.

Apologies if you are already aware of the above, I cannot tell from your initial message. For context, I did go to an observatory in the Elqui valley on the new moon last February and it was an experience I will never forget - you have never seen such a night sky in your life, very humbling and moving experience for us.

Anyways, it will be interesting to see if someone can offer more specific suggestions.

Huentetu

The vast majority of observatories whether small private ones or large international ones are quite far north of Santiago - for all the reasons mentioned above. There are a couple in Santiago owned by universities and normally not open to the public. There is one observatory in the Cajon del Maipo, about an hour or so outside the city. I have no idea how good it is but I know it has limited dates it is open. They publish the next available day on their website, 6 October at the moment. I have sometimes seen Valentine's Day dinners offered so they must have some sort of option for eating. As you can see I don't know much about it. It isn't somewhere I would personally consider visiting but you could contact them through their website and lay out what you would like to do and whether they can provide it. I believe you need your own transport.
​​​​​​​https://www.pailalen.cl/