The international students who are developing academic activities at the Coquimbo Headquarters of the UCN made their first guided visit to sites of interest in the area. On this occasion, they visited the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a complex of telescopes and astronomical instruments located approximately 80 km east of La Serena, Chile, at an altitude of 2200 meters.

The young people were able to visit the main telescopes at the Observatory site, such as the so-called "Víctor M. Blanco" of 4 meters and the "SOAR" of 4.1 m. One of the two 8-meter telescopes that make up the Gemini Observatory is located in the AURA property complex in Chile, along with more than 10 telescopes and astronomical projects.

CTIO is part of NOAO (National Observatory of Optical Astronomy of the United States), operated by AURA (Association of Universities of Research in Astronomy) under a cooperation agreement with the National Science Foundation

The visit, organized by the International Office, was very interesting for the students, as well as didactic and formative, where they could find out, for example, that Chile is one of the few countries that has skies and privileged conditions to practice astronomy.

According to Alejandra Meneses, Coordinator of the International Office Coquimbo Headquarters, it is of interest to the UCN to offer this type of activities to international students, since it allows them to imbue part of the culture of our country, and especially of our region.