Bárbara Rojas Ayala
Collaborating Member
Preserving the quality of Chile's night skies, a unique heritage in the world.
The Cielos de Chile Foundation is a private, non-profit institution founded in 2019, whose purpose is to protect the quality of Chile's night skies, an environmental, cultural, and scientific heritage that is unique worldwide, which is currently experiencing progressive deterioration due to excessive artificial lighting.
Our Mission and Vision
Promote, protect, and preserve the extraordinary value of Chile's skies as a natural laboratory for science and research, and as an element of cultural and recreational importance for our inhabitants and tourists from around the world.
Fundación Cielos de Chile seeks to be a leading institution, at national and international levels, in the fight against light pollution, its evaluation, regulation, and mitigation; with the aim of recovering the natural levels of darkness in our night sky.
The first efforts by professional astronomers in Chile to protect the country's night skies began in the mid-1990s at the Interamerican Observatory of Cerro Tololo and were realized with the establishment of the Office for the Protection of Sky Quality in Northern Chile (OPCC) in the year 2000.
In 2019, a group of astronomers and people concerned about dark skies, with the support of the European Southern Observatory, Las Campanas Observatory, and the Magellan Telescope, came together to create the Cielos de Chile Foundation, with the purpose of deepening the articulation between communities, universities, and public and private institutions, to halt the advance of light pollution.
Contribute to the valuation of dark and silent skies for science, the environment, and culture.
Monitor the implementation of initiatives aimed at reducing light pollution and contribute to its dissemination among strategic actors.
Measure light pollution and promote sustainable lighting behaviors.
Give back to citizens and communities through scientific outreach and collaboration initiatives.
Bárbara Rojas Ayala
Collaborating Member
Miguel Roth
Collaborating Member
Mark Phillips
Collaborating Member
Guillermo Blanc
President
Luis Chavarría
Vice President
Leopoldo Infante
Secretary
Óscar Contreras
Treasurer
Steffen Mieske
First Director
Eleonora Sani
Deputy Director
Daniela González Espinoza
Executive Director
Juan Pablo Valenzano
Project Coordinator
If you have any questions or inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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