background picture: view from the observatory in a typical winter day

Observatorio del Pangue

The Pangue Observatory is located in central Chile, some 480km (300mi.) north to Santiago, in the far south of the Atacama Desert, among a series of mountains that stand some 25km (4 mi.) south to the Elqui Valley. At left is a gallery of views of the landscape surrounding the observatory.

See also a 360° panoramic view taken by drone in its construction phase.
(click here)

Map Wheather

Pangue Observatory : Longitude = 70°41’39” West, Latitude = 30°08’35” South, Altitude = 1478m


The weather satellite map displayed here shows the typical configuration of clouds for Chile : heavy instabilities restricted to far south, oceanic condensations blocked to the coasts due to the low temperature of water, main clouds blocked to the East (that is, Argentina) due to the height of Andes mountains, and occasional high altitude clouds restricted to the North, around the Tropic of Capricorn… This scheme results, for us, in an average of 285 perfect nights per year (in terms of good seeing and transparency, valid from dusk to dawn) plus some 20 more with perfect parameters valid for at least half night. The red oval locates the area of the Pangue observatory and all scientific observatories around

After performing astronomical tours for general public in the first years, we then moved onward to reach our main goal : reserve visits to astrophotographers and amateur astronomers only, and, with the creation of “DeepSkySouth“, provide telescope hosting service for remote observing.

Some views of the landscape around the road to the observatory
(click to enlarge)

  • The latitude of 30° South gives better view of the Southern sky : all your favorite targets will be at a higher altitude compared to northern Chile. Besides, we are far enough from the Tropic line to avoid the instability generated by the monsoon, a recurrent weather phenomenon that in San Pedro de Atacama is known as the “invierno boliviano” (Bolivian Winter).
  • The surrounding landscape is semi-desertic, that makes the air less dusty and, again, more steady than the North, due to the lack of the intense heat escape that characterizes the grounds of desertic regions.

The chilean sky is well renowned amoung astronomers for its quality and it doesn’t need to be introduced, but our place is advantaged within Chile for the following reasons :

  • The proximity of cold oceanic currents makes the high atmosphere more steady
Milky Way centered on galactic centre ©Observatorio del Pangue / Cristian Valenzuela

Milky Way centered on the galactic centre,
©Observatorio del Pangue / Cristian Valenzuela

Our neighbors

As a consequence, these are our only neighbors, all located only 11 km away (7 mi.) due southwest:

  • Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory (CTIO)
  • SOAR observatory
  • Gemini South
  • LSST (Vera Rubin Telescope)

Farther to the North we got a series of great names, located exactly 100 km (60 mi.) away from us:

  • La Silla Observatory (ESO)
  • Las Campanas Observatory
  • Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)

Indeed our customers are sharing the sky with the greatests…