In March, the Wisconsin Alumni Association® partnered with the UW Astronomy Department to offer our first Skies of the Southern Hemisphere tour. This trip was an exclusive invitation to tour the renowned observatories and the Andean north of Chile.
These travelers had the opportunity to learn from distinguished UW faculty members about cutting-edge research. They received special permission to go behind the scenes of some of the largest and most advanced observatories in the world: ALMA, Paranal, Gemini, and Las Campanas (the Magellan Project).
The UW astronomy department’s tour of the observatories high in the Andes and of northern Chile was a great success, with the one curiosity of always being one to two days ahead of downpours, even in the Atacama Desert — “the driest place on earth,” we were told!
— Bob Williams PhD’65, distinguished research scholar, Space Telescope Science Institute; board of visitors member, UW Department of Astronomy
