Adventure through the Southern Chile

Even though I went to Chile before, I wasn't really planned to go visit the Patagonia region (southern Chile) any time soon. But that changed as soon as my friend from Caltech asked me whether I want to join them during Christmas. Of course, I would like to go to Patagonia and visit Torres Del Plain. Plus, I have my second observing run in Northern Chile at the beginning of the year, meaning that my flight will be covered from works. Before the trip, I barely know anything about this region, including what are the highlights and why is it a popular tourist destination.

However, because of my last final exam is pretty late this year, I will not have time to visit Bolivia with my friends. Instead, I arrived Santiago, a capital of Chile, two-three days before we meet up to go down to Puerto Natales (a town that we will be staying during my trip in Patagonia). First thing I did was going back to the same empanadas shop (Empanadas Zunino) and getting the same empanada that I had during my first visit. I ate it so fast that I didn't have time to take a photo. Below is a photo from my first trip. 

Original Empanadas at Mercado Central's restaurant (Photo from my summer trip)

Sunset at Griffith

At the roof on Griffith Observatory: 1/640 at f/4.5

     One of my goal that I went to Los Angeles during winter break'12 is to go the Griffith Observatory. The telescope is not actually huge, but the location of it is pretty good. Right next to Hollywood sign is a good spot of tourists. As you can see from this photo, a lot people came here and just wait to get a nice shot from sun set which is actually pretty cool. We might not be able to call it an observatory because no one has used it for any kind of research. I think we should call it "astronomical museum" instead.

Los Angeles, CA

Yerkes Observatory

Yerkes Observatory: University of Chicago's Observatory in Wisconsin

Here is the Yerkes Observatory owned by University of Chicago even though it is roughly two-hours drive from the university. Yerkes is a home of the world biggest refracting telescope. 

I just feel like I should visit more observatories, not just because I want to travel to many different places, but also because they always remind me of what my dream was like when I was a kid. About 15s in front of the observatory that night was amazing. The sky is clear, but I could not remember anymore what are these constellations. The actually telescopes are located in both side of this building with this in the middle.

40-inch Refractor Telescope

40-inch Refractor telescope at Yerkes Observatory

     I went to the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin with Astronomy Club. The observatory is owned by University of Chicago since the school was very new before 1900. This 40-inch refracting telescope easily became the largest telescope at that time and still the biggest refracting telescope in the world now that still exist today.

     After more than 100 years of working hard as an important tool to discover the universe, it now has a new role as an educator to teach kids about astronomy. Good luck Yerkes.

The biggest refracting telescope in the world aiming at Saturn