Qualla: La Silla Observatory https://qualla.com/la-silla-observatory en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:39:57 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: La Silla Observatory https://qualla.com/la-silla-observatory La Silla Observatory: Introduction https://qualla.com/la-silla-observatory/ To find the best skies in the world, a small group of European astronomers went looking on horseback. In 1963 and 1964 they rode into the mountains on the edge of the Atacama Desert, testing the air on ridge after ridge, chasing the rare combination of darkness, dryness, and steady night air that astronomy demands. They found it on a mountain called La Silla, named for its saddle-like shape. The desert below sees almost no rain, the nearest city lies far enough away that its lights never reach the summit, and the night sky here is among the darkest on the planet. On this ridge, Europe built its first observatory in the southern half of the world.

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/6/v/9/la-silla-observatory-wp/66v9-la-silla-observatory-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full La Silla Observatory: The Search for Darkness https://qualla.com/la-silla-observatory/ La Silla rises in the Coquimbo Region, about 150 kilometers northeast of the coastal city of La Serena, on the southern fringe of the Atacama. Everything that makes it extraordinary comes down to absence. There is almost no moisture in the air to blur starlight. There are almost ...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/6/v/9/la-silla-observatory-wp/66v9-la-silla-observatory-the-search-for-darkness.mp3 0:06 2 full La Silla Observatory: Europe Looks South https://qualla.com/la-silla-observatory/ The European Southern Observatory, a partnership of European nations created to give the continent a serious telescope under southern skies, made La Silla its founding site. On 25 March 1969, after years of construction, the observatory was formally inaugurated by Chilean preside...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/6/v/9/la-silla-observatory-wp/66v9-la-silla-observatory-europe-looks-south.mp3 0:06 3 full La Silla Observatory: Older Eyes on the Same Sky https://qualla.com/la-silla-observatory/ The astronomers who arrived in the 1960s were not the first to find these skies worth watching. Scattered across the slopes around La Silla are hundreds of rock engravings left by the El Molle people, who lived in this region long before any telescope was built. Some researchers ...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/6/v/9/la-silla-observatory-wp/66v9-la-silla-observatory-older-eyes-on-the-same-sky.mp3 0:06 4 full La Silla Observatory: A Working Mountain https://qualla.com/la-silla-observatory/ La Silla is not a monument. It is a working observatory, its domes still turning through the night. The site hosts a cluster of telescopes, three of them built and run by the European Southern Observatory and others maintained in partnership, and the science done here has been su...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/6/v/9/la-silla-observatory-wp/66v9-la-silla-observatory-a-working-mountain.mp3 0:06 5 full