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Saturday, June 20, 2015

My Chilean Adventure Begins

I have arrived in Chile! As I sat in the Atlanta International Terminal, waiting to board my overnight flight to Santiago, I was overwhelmed with feelings of amazement. I still can hardly believe that I was awarded this opportunity. 


I flew out from Peoria yesterday afternoon, and couldn't resist getting a photo with Jupiter in our Community Solar System Model, the largest, most complete scale model of the Solar System in the World. 



On my short flight to Atlanta I read about telescopes in this book, and enjoyed looking at the Earth below me. I was riding approximately 7 miles above the ground, only 193 miles lower than the International Space Station! 

This cloud cover is one reason huge telescopes aren't built in Central Illinois.
After an hour or so layover in Atlanta, we boarded for Santiago (I was on the same flight as two other ACEAP team members!). It was an overnight flight, so I was hopeful I would get to see stars out the window, but I didn't catch a single one. I did see constellations of humans, however, and a beautiful sunrise over the Andes in the morning. 

The International Terminal in Atlanta has a beautiful view. Check out that star!

Constellations of humans seen from the plane.

Sunrise.
We got to the airport at about 8:30 AM Santiago time. After picking up our baggage and going through customs, we met up with most of the ACEAP team. It was cold in the morning, tomorrow is the Winter Solstice in this hemisphere, afterall. 

A nice man named Pedro let me wear his coat. I put it on over my backpack... turtle turtle.
We don't officially start the program until tomorrow, so we spent today being tourists. Santiago is a huge city! There are skyscrapers everywhere and lots of smog. 
 
Central Market with lots of shops and restaurants.


We ate lunch here. It was delicious and interesting. The building was open to the air, so it was a little chilly.


We decided to walk to a mountain where we could overlook Santiago. We took a funicular up to the top.

The view from the top. The gray layer of clouds is smog.
Click to enlarge. You can see why big observatories are not built in Santiago either.

Two friends of mine from the Great Lakes Planetarium Association are in ACEAP as well. Space Ladies of the world, unite! From left to right, Me, Shannon Schmoll of the Abrams Planetarium, and Sarah
Komperud of the Bell Museum of Natural History.
Tomorrow, the work begins with training sessions at the Associated Universities campus. Check back for more updates!

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