This blog picks up from the Valle de Elqui blog.
After spending the day touring the valley we were left at Vicunia to hang out for the evening. We were suppose to meet the guide at the Mamalluca Observatory offices in Vicunia. We ended up waiting for a pretty long time, when he all of a sudden showed up. We went to the van with the guide and jumped in the van and were off to the races. Literally, the guide drove the van like we were in the Indy 500 through dirt roads. Every turn it seemed as if there was a road block and thus we had to make a quick turn around the corner to miss certain death. The guide informed us that the town always had construction and thus he never knew exactly the correct direction to the observatory since there were detours. It was an interesting ride to say the least. We finally made it to the observatory and we got out of the van in complete darkness. On the grounds of the observatory there were only a few lights where there were steps, but most of the grounds didn't have steps just ramps so that the use of lights was not needed.
Why would there be an observatory in northern Chile for tourists? Why is northern Chile a hub for astronomy? Well, let me tell you. Northern Chile is one of the most clear places in the world in relation to weather patterns and clouds. If you remember from my earlier posts the Atacama Desert is the driest desert in the world, thus, as you can imagine there are only one or two days a year with clouds in northern Chile. Also, the desert climate makes human population difficult, thus there are very few lights that cause light pollution in the area. The only other place in the world with these same geographic details is Namibia in Africa. Namibia is not as stable of a government, thus Chile becomes the most desirable place in the world for observatories.
Both the European Union and the United States have their main telescopes in this northern region of Chile. They continue to plan to make more and bigger telescopes in the region. These plans though were put to a halt a few years ago because light pollution had become quite a problem in northern Chile. Thus the foreign governments, mainly the EU and the US, told Chile that unless they enacted a law that required special night time lights that decrease light pollution they would not build their telescopes in Chile. The Chilean government thus accordingly enacted a law that says that people will be fined if they have any outdoor lights that are not of the special night time lights required. You know these lights because we have them in the US as well. The difference is between the clear white lights that you sometimes see and the orange lights that are the special night time lights. In most of the world people have switched almost fully to the special night time lights --- especially local and regional governments. (I know this because my dad works on projects such as these.) I have also always wanted to know there makes a difference between lamp posts that have globes (like in New Prague) versus lamp posts that direct the light down towards the road. It would seem more likely that the lamp posts that direct the light down towards the ground would preserve more light and thus cause less light pollution. If you know you should tell me.
Anyways, our tour was very, very good. We went between stations observing the absolutely clear night sky. In the main observatory we saw stars in the telescope that were 2,000 light years away. This idea blew me away. This light year idea is so amazing. What it means is that the light you see in the telescope was given off 2,000 years ago and we are just seeing it now because it is that far away. Thus, if you were on that star and looking in a very powerful telescope at earth you would see a reflection of earth that would be during the time of Christ. Crazy huh? I think so. We also saw Jupiter, which is much closer to earth compared to these stars. Another thing I learned and thought was extremely interesting is that the most powerful telescopes in the world (well all the telescopes in the world) will only show you the pictures of planets and stars in black and white because our eyes cannot comprehend or register the colors. Which is also extremely interesting. Thus any pictures you see of planets and stars are doctored images not direct images. The images are what you would see if our eyes could comprehend the colors in the telescope.
At another station we were taught how to observe the night sky and find our direction in the south. Unlike the northern hemisphere the south doesn't have a star that is always in the south. Thus you have to use the southern cross to determine the center of the sky in the south. It is so beyond my understanding that from these points our entire sky pivots. I feel like once you understand this concept it is much easier to understand the position of the sky. We were also shown the zodiac star patterns. It was interesting to learn that you will never see your zodiac on your birthday because it is always hidden and not visible to viewers anywhere in the world. Since we went in September I could just see part of my zodiac symbol, Libra (October), but if I went back to the observatory today, I would not be able to see it. We also were able to see very clearly the milky way galaxy.
At one of these stations there was a group of students that were talking about what they were seeing. It was interesting to overhear what they were saying. (I must admit that they were a little ditzy, so that already affected my perception of them, but what they said made me think a lot.) They said that they found everything very interesting but that since they were Christian they didn't believe that these stars were really around for millions of years because God created the earth only so many years ago--- blah blah blah. You know the debate. It was just totally beyond my imagination that someone could think that these scientists who are really smart are just lying and that they really don't know anything. Then it made me start to question the importance of this idea (years etc.) in my faith and whether I could believe science and still at the same time believe my Christian faith.
I would love to hear other people's perspectives on this. My conclusion has been this so far: We can't possibly understand the creation of the universe and the process that God went through. The Bible is definitely the world of God, but it is not necessarily to be taken literally (7 days), something I know my Lutheran faith doesn't agree with me on. The most important conclusion that I came to is that the most important thing I have to believe is that Jesus Christ came to die for my sins and that through his Grace and my Faith, I am saved. The details of the creation of the universe or whether communion changes into the body and blood or is symbolic or is something else are mere details in my relationship with Christ. Maybe I am off my rocker, but I really need some other perspectives on this.
In any case, this tour has been one of the highlights of my entire trip. It was so fascinating and seeing the stars in this clear night sky was absolutely fantastic. If you ever get the chance to visit Chile or more specifically La Serena, I highly suggest it. If you can't visit Chile there is the Mamalluca Website that looks quite interesting as well.
After the tour we were driven back to La Serena and to our hostels. We were very tired from the long day of touring, so we hit the sack.
No comments:
Post a Comment