It Chile's inhospitable Atacama Desert - the driest place on the planet - is a very difficult place to live, but its unique climate and minimal light pollution make it a great location for astronomical observations. That's why several observatories have been built here since 1969. Atacama has also become very popular in the film world, with the 2008 Bond film Quantum of Solace bringing it to the silver screen. However, the students of the Multimedia Technology programme at the Institute of Physics in Opava bring a completely new authentic insight into the world of this unique high mountain desert. Through their original adventure documentary, filmed in 2019 during a harrowing expedition to see the total solar eclipse on 2 July that year, we will take a look at life in the desert, visit the bases of the European Southern Observatory and feel the unique atmosphere during the captivating celestial phenomenon.

"By car, bus, hitchhiking and on foot, we literally visited the world's largest astronomical observatories as adventurers and got carried away by the beauty of this desert, but also by the peculiar South American culture and the beautiful night sky," describes Jiří Dobrý, co-author of the documentary. The main goal of their journey was to observe a total solar eclipse - probably the most beautiful natural phenomenon that can be observed with the naked eye. "A partial eclipse, when the Moon covers part of the Sun, is quite common and many people don't even notice it. But during a total eclipse, the Sun hides behind the Moon entirely and for a few minutes it is "night" in the daytime. However, such a phenomenon occurs only in a narrow strip on the surface of our planet and is worth travelling thousands of kilometres to see it," adds Jiří Malík, the second author of the film.

The authors of the documentary also visited professional astronomers at ESO's Paranal Observatory, where there are four 8-meter VLT (Very Large Telescope) telescopes. The documentary offers exclusive interviews with some of them and, of course, a look at the giant telescopes themselves. At an altitude of over 4 km, the filmmakers then visit the highest geyser field on the planet. During the journey, they met similarly enthusiastic expeditions from Poznan or Brno, who also went to observe the eclipse. But all the while, they were also amazed at the night sky, which is incomparably more beautiful than that of the northern hemisphere.

"In Chile, it is possible to observe with the naked eye not only the perfectly structured centre of our Milky Way, which stretches across the sky, but also the Magellanic Clouds - two other galaxies that are not observable from us at all. The constellations of the southern sky are a complete unknown to the Central European. It is not possible to observe Cassiopeia, the Dragon or the Little Bear, and other familiar constellations are often upside down before his eyes. On the contrary, he has to learn to recognise the Peacock, the Southern Fish, Tukan or the iconic Southern Cross," concludes Jiří Dobrý about his experiences from the trip and the making of the student documentary, which will be broadcast today in prime time on Prima ZOOM.

Contact deails and additional information:

Bc. Jiří Dobrý

Bc. Jiří Malík

MgA. Ondřej Smékal

doc. RNDr. Gabriel Török, Ph.D.

Mgr. Petr Horálek

prof. RNDr. Zdeněk Stuchlík, CSc.

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