Discover the grand observatories of Chile.

It takes many people with diverse backgrounds, talents, and skills to run a world-class observatory. Meet these people and share in the wonder of the sky—and the excitement of discovery. Big Astronomy is set in Chile where the dry, dark sky, and remoteness creates an ideal site to observe the universe.

Big Astronomy is a collaboration between Abrams Planetarium at MSU, Associated Universities Inc. (AUI), Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), California Academy of Sciences, Peoria Riverfront Museum, Ward Beecher Planetarium at YSU, Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA), Vera C. Rubin Observatory construction project, NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory facilities Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and the international Gemini Observatory. Big Astronomy is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Award #: 1811436)