Observatory Stargazing Tour from Santiago

What a great evening. Yes, it is a bit more expensive than some of the other tours you can do in the Santiago region, but so worth it. Damaso and his colleague Franco describe themselves as "romantic astronomers". You spend the evening in their garden on the outskirts of Santiago. The garden is a quiet paradise full of telescopes of all shapes and sizes. You start of watching sunspots and solar flares on the setting sun, then move to the planets in the evening light and finally to the stars/satellites after dark. Throughout you will be plied with charcuterie board, snacks, ceviche and endless wine while entertained by the hosts. Francisca at Chile Off Track was super helpful getting all the logistics sorted for this evening.

Excellent experience. Multiple telescopes and observatory. I saw close ups of Venus, Jupiter, the moon, the sun and even a galaxy. The property was wonderful. It’s a private home of an astronomer with both indoor and outdoor lounge spaces, a pool, a bar, and grounds full of surreal sculptures created by the astronomer. His family served us wine and snacks. A wonderful stargazing unique experience. I’d do it again!

+2

We had a great evening with a fabulous host. The technical descriptions were of great interest. The views through the telescopes were very good in spite of the unfortunate smoke in the sky from the brush fires. The wine and food was also delicious. We highly recommend the experience.

Fantastic tour. We drove about an hour and a half from our Santiago hotel to a hill top compound. The views were incredible. We learned so much about indigenous culture and astronomy. Highly recommend.

Had a great time. He is an avid amateur astronomer and his passion clearly shows. Not just the shear number of telescopes but his willingness to share his knowledge is wonderful!

This is a must do experience. Our host’s passion for the cosmos was infectious. We assumed we would travel to a rural area in the Andes but went about 45 min (with traffic) outside of Santiago to our host’s home. We were welcomed to his outdoor paradise and incredible telescope collection and the stargazing adventure began. The wine was great as well as the appetizers. They even respected one or our party’s nut allergies by creating a separate selection for her. It was a magical evening. My wife and I went with our two adult Childers (in their 20s) and cousin. We are still talking about it and sharing our etherial photos.

Such an amazing experience! We had a driver come pick us up in Santiago, drive into the hills for 30mins, and we arrived at a wonderful private observatory where the hosts entertained us for over 3 hours! Damasco was simply wonderful, very knowledgeable and so passionate! His wife served us wonderful wine and snacks. Only wish that I knew of this tour earlier. Highly recommend!

The person leading the tour should really cancel the trip and not leave it up to the person to decide to continue with the experience. It was relayed to me that there may be “unfavorable conditions but it could change because you never know in September”. Once we get there he greeted us with “I don’t understand why you all came? Why are you here?” Whoever was messaging me did not make it obvious that the astronomer was 100% we wouldn’t see anything/we shouldn’t come… they just cancel at that point because we then got dropped off and couldn’t leave for 3 hours. He gave us a tour of his property, hardly talked about the telescopes, or the observatory. He showed us moon picture on an app. They were very nice and did give us snacks and drinks per the overview. However, it was pointless, I never would have gone had it been clear to me there was no chance of stars.

This excursion was expensive, but to me, it was totally worth it! It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Initially, we actually weren't even sure if we were going to be able to make it to the excursion since we had a very tight turnaround right after a long day trip to Valparaiso. But, our tour manager Claudia, from Chile Off Track, did a wonderful job of keeping in contact even before we arrived in Santiago, and then continuously working to coordinate our transportation from our hotel in Santiago after our arrival. With her assistance, we managed to make it right on time for the initial part of our amazing experience - viewing solar flares! Before I get too deep into the stargazing portion of the experience, though, let me first say that by far, what made it truly outstanding was our lovely host, Damaso. He so warmly welcomed us (he and his sweet little dogs) into his beautiful home situated in the Andes mountains. Right away. we were offered beverages (we all opted for a crisp, delicious champagne) and yummy hors d'oeuvres and were made to feel immediately comfortable. And, at one point later in the evening, his kids even nicely brought out additional hot snacks. But, back to stargazing...Damaso is so knowledgeable and clearly has a very deep love and enthusiasm for what he does. His passion is infectious! Throughout the evening, he calibrated and recalibrated the plethora of telescopes he'd set up for optimal viewing of various stars. And, he also patiently explained what we were seeing on each occasion, as well as how we could refocus the telescopes for optimal personal viewing when switching from one guest to the another (there were only 4 of us total, so it was a nice, relaxed atmosphere). And the things we saw!😮🤯Beforehand, I'd imagined that we'd view the planets like Saturn, etc. But, when we were able to see the actual colors of various nebula?! My mind was completely blown! All in all, I am so happy that we stumbled upon this gem of an experience. It was absolutely incredible and a true highlight of my time spent in Chile!

+3

This tour was not accurately described or what we expected. If you are interested in a good dinner and limited stargazing, fine. Our primary interest was astronomy and we were shown 1 view in three telescopes. The staff were excellent, the food was very good, but the very long drive from Santiago was not worth the time and expense.