ESO launches first programme of night tours of scientific observatories in Chile

In March 2026, on the occasion of Chile’s Astronomy Day celebrations, ESO will mark a milestone by launching its first programme of public night tours at its La Silla and Paranal observatories. These visits will give people from Chile and around the world the opportunity to see some of the Organisation’s most iconic telescopes, as well as enjoy the planet’s most pristine dark skies.

The programme will offer at least eight visits per year, during which the public will see the opening of telescopes at sunset in La Silla or Paranal and observe the stars, with the naked eye, under one of the darkest skies in the world. The programme will also include guided tours of different areas of the observatories, round-trip transportation from different cities in the Antofagasta and Coquimbo regions, as well as some surprises.

The first visit will take place at the Paranal Observatory on March 21 as part of the celebrations for Astronomy Day in Chile. It will also have the collaboration of the Antofagasta Region office of Chile’s National Tourism Service (SERNATUR). The rest of the night tours at Paranal and La Silla will be scheduled annually to coincide with emblematic dates, including the Puerto de Ideas Antofagasta festival, Chile’s National Heritage Day, Chilean Science Week, among others.

For this inaugural tour, registration will be through SERNATUR Antofagasta’s social media channels and will be open to anyone in the region, including domestic and international tourists. For future visits, registration details will be provided through ESO’s official channels.

These new night tours will last three hours at the observatories, where visitors will be able to watch the sunset from the observatories and visit the control rooms from where the telescopes operate. In addition, depending on operational conditions, the visits will allow visitors to see areas of ESO’s telescopes such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal or the New Technology Telescope (NTT) at La Silla.

Each visit will also include a guided observation of the sky with the naked eye, during which visitors will be able to appreciate the beauty of the world’s most pristine skies and familiarise themselves with some of the celestial objects visible at different times of the year.

For decades, ESO has offered a regular programme of public visits that attracts more than 7,000 people a year and that, until now, only included daytime tours. Regarding this, Laura Ventura, ESO’s Deputy Representative in Chile, said: “We are proud to be able to enrich the programme of visits to our observatories, so that more people, particularly from the respective regions and communities, can learn about this scientific, technological, and natural heritage that is unique in the world. It is a dream of many years that is now coming true.”

Courtesy of European Southern Observatory