Frequently asked
Is tonight good for stargazing at Paranal Observatory?
The live score above pulls today's forecast and runs it through StarCast's scoring model, factoring in cloud cover, moon illumination, Bortle class, humidity, and atmospheric transparency. Above 70 is an excellent night. Below 40, conditions are poor. The score updates daily.
What makes Paranal Observatory good for astrophotography?
ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Chilean Atacama sits at 2,635 meters on Cerro Paranal, home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the world's most productive ground-based optical facility. The site was selected after an exhaustive survey of the Southern Hemisphere for the driest, most stable, and darkest skies available: humidity averages below 10 percent, cloud cover exceeds 2 percent on fewer than 10 nights per year, and Bortle Class 1 conditions are effectively guaranteed on clear nights. The four 8.2-meter telescope domes and the surrounding desert ridge create a dramatic silhouette against the galactic core. Public visits are offered on some Saturdays.
When is the Milky Way visible at Paranal Observatory?
The galactic core is visible year-round at this latitude (24 degrees south), but the best season runs April through October when the core is highest in the sky during the longest nights. The Atacama's hyperarid climate means cloud cover is nearly nonexistent: most nights are photographable year-round outside of the brief Bolivian winter moisture event in January and February. The core transits nearly overhead in winter, and the Magellanic Clouds and Eta Carinae Nebula are prominent objects in the southern sky visible from the site.
