Six-hundred-and-fifty-thousand lightyears from Earth, dark clouds of dense cosmic dust hang suspended in vast panes of inky red gas, as hundreds of stars burn brightly in the background.

British astronomer Gary Fildes' unbounded passion for all things stellar has led him, as matter of course, to visit Chile's Atacama Desert where he can gaze upon the spectacular night skies, renowned worldwide for their clarity.

In recent years northern Chile has become one of the best places in the world in which to watch the sky.

The largest ground-based observatory ever conceived by man, Chile's Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) officially opened on March 13.

High in the mountains outside San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile, an array of five dozen 100 ton antennas turn in unison, scanning the sky for invisible electromagnetic waves that tell the tale of the cosmos.

We've been driving for two hours into the sparse expanse of the Atacama Desert when they rise up over the hills in the distance: the four enormous structures of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope

A partial eclipse of the sun will be visible from Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernández archipelago on the evening of November 13, 2012.

It's funny but true: the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), once constructed, will be large. So large, in fact, that it's on track to become the largest optical/infrared telescope in the world.

Virtual tourists from around the world can take an unprecedented look inside several of Chile's key astronomical observatories on Friday, October 5.

Several observatories in northern Chile meet the criteria and are key to developing astronomy tourism in the country. The observatories are located in the Antofagasta, Atacama and Coquimbo regions.