Astronomical Guided Tour in San Pedro

The Director of Astronomy at the site of the tour is who would actually be guiding the tour. He is definitely knowledgeable and passionate about what he does. You can ask him anything related to astronomy and there is truthful honest answers. It’s like one of those intellectual discussions you have in engaged class with the professor. So couple things to know: The driver for the agency will not speaking english. It’s your director for the tour who will accommodate the languages. It’s outside since it’s stargazing. It will be cold since you are sitting. So dress warmly if you come in the winter or if you come any other season douse yourself in bug spray. In any season use sunblock not for the sun but radiation. The snacks are simple: nuts, commercial chips, crackers, hot tea, coffee, and some variation of alcohol or juice. These are pretty standard in almost any tour you take for these trips. That said any tour that includes breakfast or lunch will mostly be sandwiches, and if you have allergies like celiac it will be like rice cakes instead of bread or if it’s snacks, it will be nuts or fruits. If you are low fodmap, to keep it simple just name one or 2 specific things that triggers you the most that you see often at whatever meal and just let the tour operators know. They always try to accommodate as long as you give them specifics. That’s fair. You get photos at the end of the tour. Some of it will be tripods set out to help you take your own. Some will be from the director who will professionally take it for you at a set location in the tour area. The ones professionally taken will be loaded onto a file for the group for 48 hours and you can download yours. Lastly when you book for a set time, please understand anything weather dependent is subject to shift times. Like we booked ours for 930 pm but because of weather, and that particular day, the best time to do this tour was predicted to actually be at 8 pm. So always whatsapp chat your operator. You can message on tripadvisor, however the most sure way to contact them is whatsapp. Make sure to have your tickets ready from your booking section when asking questions so they have a reference to answer your question. You should either get a link in your booking section once your is confirmed or an email will be sent to you. So any boat rides or similar will also be subject to weather and season. Ok Byeeee

Jared is very intelligent, brings an incredible wealth of information for the astronomical tour (and in several different languages). Observing stars and nebulae by the telescope is really fascinating, full plate for astronomy enthusiasts or curious. The photo with the Via Lactea in the background was also very cool!

Our guide Jared was exceptionally knowledgeable. Gave us an astronomy 101 in easy to understand language. Only thing that would have made it better would to have gone when there was no moon but still had a great view of the night sky. Seeing stars and the moon through high powered telescopes was incredible.

The night sky is incredible and the setting with the telescopes very professional. The guide is an expert and has so much expertise that he unfortunately loses his audience after a very short time, as you are showered with information. I would have liked a slightly less detailed explanation at layman's level. I found it surprising that half the time it was about taking photos, either with your own mobile phone or being photographed. Personally, I would have preferred to have more stars explained.

Due to weather, this activity was on and off theoughout the day! Thankfully we were able to go and the tour operators were good at keeping us updated, very clear on the expectations and timings. This experience is one of the best experiences of my life!!! The guide at the site was so knowledgeable and passionate he patiently answered all questions and translated in 3 different languages whilst keeping everyone engaged. He is perhaps the best guide of his expertise i have met. He was so friendly, Jared was brilliant. We had time to take pictures after and enjoy the views. It was the perfect pace and really magical. Highly reccomend this particular tour because of the providers and the great expertise of Jared.

Amazing experience, Jared is incredibly passionate about astronomy and has a huge amount of knowledge. Even with somewhat cloudy conditions, Jared was able to make the experience excellent, adapting to the movement of the clouds to ensure we saw as much as possible. The telescope is very powerful so you get to see some incredible sights. The food, wine and cocktails included is a really nice touch and was a good way to kill time whilst everyone gets photos (which are great by the way). Cannot recommend highly enough, thank you Jared! :)

It was a very nice evening. Jared, the astronomer who led the tour, speaks excellent English, so you understood everything very well. It's always nice to hear someone talk enthusiastically about their work trying to draw you into their world. He responded very well to all questions, partly with humor where appropriate. All in all, a very successful evening and we were happy to be able to participate in this trip at such short notice. You don’t need to tell much about the starry sky, the pictures speak volumes and it’s just like you see it in the pictures. Just magical!

The meeting point was in the Andes Travel office on Caracoles Street in the centre of San Pedro. We walked to the van that took us to the place, which was in the outskirts of the city. It was a well-arranged terrain, prepared for observation of the sky. It was near a highway, so from time to time you could see lights from the cars, but nothing to interfere with the event. Jared conducted the tour in Spanish and English, but from time to time he spoke a great Portuguese. The first part of the tour was observation of the sky, with explanation about the stars, the Solar System, and general doubts. Jared was quite excited and answered all the questions. The sky of San Pedro is quite clear and you could see an immense number of stars with the naked eye, and a piece of the Milky Way. There were two telescopes that Jared positioned according to what we were going to observe. The tour was on 08/01/2026 from 21:00-23:00, so we logically observed what was possible at the time. We saw Saturn, Orion Nebula, Pleiades, Tarantula Nebula, a globular cluster, and Jupiter with its stripes and 4 moons. We then took a break for snacks, and the group split into 2 for photos, which Jared sent right the next morning. There were also some tripods that people could use to take their own photos (the photo I attached is from my iPhone, nothing comparable to the great photo Jared took of us with the starry sky in the background). It was necessary to wait a while until it was your turn to observe the telescope or take the photo, but this is understandable, since it is a collective tour. In the end, it is worth it!

Everything was wonderful! Very well-organized! The one I would suggest is perhaps we don’t need to make 2 stops: breakfast and lunch. It extends the day quite a bit. But the tour itself was great and I would recommend it!

It is a fascinating experience to be told such a starry sky as here in the Atacama so great. Our guide Cesar is passionate about his profession and he can really get you excited about astronomy. Finally, there was a photo of the participants with the arm of the Milky Way in the background.