Vicuna is a small town in the north of Chile. It is a great place for watching the stars. Although it is near the sea, the cold, wet air from the coast does not bring clouds. Instead, dry winds from the desert keep the cloud away at night. In fact, the skies are so clear in Vicuna. So it is possible for people to see many stars. They can be seen only with special instruments in other parts of the world.
In Vicuna, star systems(星系) far away can be seen without an instrument. This is why people choose the town as the home of sky observatories(天文台). One of them, the Mamalluca, is quite different from those only used by scientists. It is for tourists who like to look at the stars. Around the whole year, hotels in the town accommodate thousands of tourists from all over the world to see the night sky. The tourists live in the hotel and spend a lot of money there. The cloudless sky is a money-maker for the town. So the town plans to set up even more observatories in another few years.
However, the town faced a serious problem. As the town grew, more streetlights were added. The streetlights made it more and more difficult to see the stars at night clearly. The town saved the night sky by building a new system of lights. This kind of light light up the streets, but did not influence the view of the sky.
