Educational Visits

Due to te precautionary measures taken by the observatory to prevent the spread of COVID-19, protect its staff, and operations, all public visits, including educational, institutional, and media visits to the observatory, are suspended until further notice.

ALMA hosts guided visits on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for groups from schools, universities, institutes and related scientific organizations. The visits -which will take about 3 hours- include a tour of the Operations Support Facility (OSF), the camp where ALMA personnel work and where visitors can observe the control room, laboratories, and sometimes an antenna in maintenance and antenna transporter. There they will learn how the observatory works, they will know the work areas of the staff and see a video about the history of ALMA, among other activities. For safety reasons, visits to the Chajnantor Plateau (the Array Operations Site, or AOS, where the antennas are located) are not authorised, due to its high altitude at 5,000 meters above sea level.

All visits must be coordinated at least one month in advance by providing all of the information required on the form below. Once a group receives authorization, the contact for the group will receive a confirmation email.

We can receive group of up to 40 people (including students, professors and/or parents/guardians). The visiting group must have its own means of transportation to the Observatory (OSF or the ALMA camp) located 35 kms from San Pedro de Atacama.