Best seat in the house

The European Space Agency’s La Silla Observatory in Chile was the place to be for viewing of a total solar eclipse on Tuesday afternoon, local time.

The eclipse lasted about two and a half hours, with almost two minutes of totality, and was visible across a narrow band of Chile and Argentina.

La Silla is on the outskirts of the Atacama Desert, about 600 kilometres north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres. Above it are some of the clearest skies in the world.

This was the last solar eclipse of the decade. The next one will be 14 December 2020, and it again will cross Chile and Argentina.

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