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A little bit of history…
Our initial photos were obtained from our backyard during the COVID lockdown times and under highly contaminated conditions by the city lights (Bortle 7). Soon after the lockdown, we started traveling to darker sites in order to acquire data under better sky conditions. For long term observing projects which demands extended integration time, we use a small optical setup at the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment - APEX control base in San Pedro de Atacama.
Although, the history of "Cluster One Observatory" has its roots dating back to 1994, we were formally established as a family project during the total solar eclipse on July 2, 2019.
Since that event, we have grown hand-in-hand with some highlights:
2019, July 2nd - Total solar eclipse
2019, September 9th - Our first sky tracker, the iOptron SkyGuider Pro.
2019, October 4th - Adquisition of our first apochromatic refractor, the William Optics SpaceCat 51.
2020, March 14th - Adquisition of our first astronomical camera (ZWO ASI178MC-Cool)
2020, March 20th - Adquisition of our first hyperbolic astrograph, the SharpStar 15028 HNT, the iOptron CEM40 mount and a QHY294C cooled CMOS camera.
2020, May 21st - Cluster One Observatory is born on AstroBin
2020, November 29th - Publication of our picture of Messier 7 in Galactic Hunter’s book “The Messier Catalog Workbook”
2021, November 6th - Participation in the first national meeting of “AstroAdictos”, in Alcohuaz, Chile.
2022, January 10th - First observations from the APEX control base in San Pedro de Atacama.
2022, September 6th - Our iOptron CEM26 is replaced by the ZWO AM5 harmonic mount.
2022, November 1st - First mosaic project towards the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC).
2023, January 1st - Largest mosaic project towards the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC.
2023, February 2nd - “Cluster One” registered as intellectual property in Chile.
2023, January 8-11 - Cluster One Observatory poster presented at the APEX Ringberg conference, Germany.
2023, February 11th - Magellanic Clouds over Chile picture featured as NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).
2023, June 9th - www.clusteroneobservatory.com goes online.
2023, June 20th - Cluster One Observatory website featured in the news section of North Optics. Thanks to Rodrigo Zelada.
2023, November 8th - Cluster One Observatory astrophotos under exhibition at the “Congreso Internacional de Astronomia Amateur 2023” (CIAA2023)
How did we get here?
Certainly with a huge quota of hard work and endless motivation. But the last wouldn’t have been possible without the help and inspiration of many people, that we would like to acknowledge in this section.
We would like to express our deep gratitude to Rodrigo Zelada, who runs North Optics, a local company based in our hometown of La Serena, bringing specialized astronomical equipment for anyone interested in astronomy, either observational or astrophotography. Almost every piece in our setup has been bought to North Optics.
A special word goes to our friends of AstroAdictos and AstroCoquimbo, whose members are living examples of knowledge, experience and, on top of that and even more important, are amazing friends willing to help and share their passion about astrophotography.
Also, we’d like to share very special words of recognition to Carlos Sagan and his wonderful youtube channel DesiertoCósmico. In his channel, Carlos reviews equipment and very informative hands-on experience about telescopes, cameras and just everything involved behind every astrophoto.
Last but not least, to all the astrophotography master at "Asociación Chilena de Astronomía y Astronáutica” (ACHAYA), who are constantly sharing their passion and enthusiasm about this amazing hobby.