The exhibition, which begins its exhibition in La Serena for the first time, already has an invitation to be exhibited outside the country.  

Interested in astronomy, photography and especially astrophotography, they gathered at the opening of the exhibition “Alaxpacha Jayri: Our night sky”, a collective exhibition that exhibits different images of the night sky, taken at different astronomical observatories and sites. close to the regions of Coquimbo and Atacama. This exhibition will remain open to the public until October 30 in the Exhibition Hall of the University of La Serena. 

“Alaxpacha: dark sky and Jayri: night without a moon”, had a large audience, speeches from the organizers, a talk on how to take these images and two musical interventions, which began this exhibition organized and coordinated by the Department of Physics and the Extension Directorate of the U. de La Serena. 

The works correspond to people closely linked to Astronomy and photography, who, coordinated by the ULS Astronomy Group and the curator Manuel Paredes, formed a group of 6 people who today make up the authors of the exhibition; Manuel Paredes - journalist, Gemini Observatory; Ariel López - scientific operator, Gemini Observatory; Hernán Antonio Stockebrand - student and astrophotographer; Nicolas Jongis - educator and photographer; Yuri Beletsky - astronomer, Las Campanas Observatory; and Consuelo del Pilar González - Lic. in Education, Las Campanas Observatory. They exhibit 20 photographs of the night sky and 4 banners of astronomical science images processed by four astronomers from the Astronomy Group of the University of La Serena, which were obtained with different instruments belonging to different terrestrial and satellite astronomical observatories.

In this regard, Verónica Firpo, coordinator and manager of the exhibition, expressed that “the main idea is to try to reflect the good quality of the sky in these regions of Coquimbo and Atacama, and of course the preservation of this sky, above all things. that it be preserved, that new generations can enjoy this sky, and try to ensure that light pollution, with the advance of large cities, does not cover it, allowing us to continue enjoying it (...). So let's try to prevent this, to ensure that light pollution does not reach these areas. It is not for nothing that the best observatories are being located in these areas, in these regions, and they are betting big,” she said. 

For his part, Manuel Paredes, highlighted that "to do astronomy it is enough to look at the sky, it is not necessary to have a super powerful telescope, nor to have an ultra-technological, very expensive camera, but simply to look at the sky, we have the possibility of looking internet and know the objects that are in the sky, simply going to the internet and searching, this is a way to motivate the public, to motivate children, young people, to look up and take advantage of the quality of the sky that there is here in the fourth region and that does not exist in other large cities.”

It is worth mentioning that, although this exhibition was created to be presented in La Serena with mainly regional exhibitors, it already has invitations from abroad to take the works on a traveling tour to Argentina and France. 

This exhibition will remain open to the public until October 30 from Monday to Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 14:00 p.m. and from 16:00 p.m. to 18:30 p.m. and on Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 14:00 p.m. and from 16:00 p.m. to 17:30 p.m. Admission is free to the public at the ULS Exhibition Hall, located at Benavente 950, La Serena.

Source: Press Extension Direction