Chile is widely recognised as having the world's best skies for stargazing with an average of 300 clear nights a year and the extremely dry air creating excellent visibility.

The area surrounding La Serena in the Andean foothills is home to many of the world's biggest observatories including the European Southern Observatory. Most can be visited only during the day and as part of a guided tour but the Cerro Marmalluca Community Observatory is open for night-time viewing for those who are really looking to explore the Southern hemisphere's magical night skies in depth.

Chile's tourism sector runs all sorts of astronomically focused tours from naked eye trips into the Atacama desert to the 'Route of the Stars' that runs from observatory to observatory across the length of Chile.

This is a great destination for just getting out into the wild and really losing yourself in the fabulous skies; take a star chart and some binoculars and look out for the infamous Southern Cross and the mind-bogglingly distant Magellanic Clouds.

Written by  Anna Dejardin.

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