Chile’s perfect skies for stargazing under threat from giant chemical plant

The path of a lunar eclipse over the ESO’s very large telescope at Paranal. Photograph: ESO/JC Muñoz-Mateos

In the Atacama desert, the driest non-polar region on Earth, the sky shines when the sun sets.

Up in the arid hills 130km south of the Chilean city of Antofagasta, comets burn brightly and flawless trails of stars and nebulae streak the night sky.