Today i joined a colleague of mine on an observing run using telescope facility from the European Southern Observatory. We made observations with the High- Accuracy RadialVelocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) which is installed on the 3,6m telescope in La Silla Chile. It is a spectrograph dedicated to the discovery of exoplanets using the radial velocity method.
I have heard several stories about astronomer's travel to the Chilean mountains for their observing runs and I always looked forward to having my own personal experience. I hoped this year would be it but of course 2020 prohibited any such travel. But remote observations were possible where you connect with a night astronomer at the facility and use remote platform tools to sequence the observations.
It was a fun first experience (despite being remote) and I enjoyed learning a range of things. I however still wish to have my own physical experience of the Chilean mountains and enjoy the view at one of the darkest sky sites on earth.