Why is Chile so long? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#331

Post by jerojero » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 1:57 AM UTC

perfectstorm wrote: post #250

w4der wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, that would probably be the north of Chile on the Atacama desert, there's a reason why the Extremely Large Telescope, Giant Magellan Telescope and Vera C. Rubin are being built there.

i'm going to assume that commoners like us don't have access to that telescope.

Pretty sure you can rent telescope time it's just booked so you might have to wait.

You can still go physically, there's tours and such. But it doesn't make sense for a physicist to go there when all the imagery is captured by a computer anyway.

Also, if you've been to those altitudes you know it's not a walk in the park either!

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#332

Post by nox101 » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 2:26 AM UTC

SkyPuncher wrote: post #280

nox101 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is 1 million people a lot? I lived most of my life in metro areas of 15-30 million. when I finally ventured out and saw so many famous places at 1.5 million or less and how I could drive in and then back out of their downtowns in just a few blocks I was kind of shocked on how small most places are

In my book, 1M people is when a city starts to become a “proper” city. It’ll host major events, invest in public transit (beyond bus), have extensive infrastructure, have extremely thorough airport service, likely have many walkable neighborhoods, and generally feel like a city. Under 1M and the city center tends to be very small with most people driving from the suburbs.

We're talking metro area, not city. If the city is 1M, it's metro area is likely 1.5 to 3 million. If the metro area is 1m then the city is probably 750k to 350k people.

The post above said "The Concepción metro area is 1 million people" which means the city itself is much smaller. In fact, Wikipedia says it's 200k people, 1m metro area

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#333

Post by nox101 » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 2:42 AM UTC

nox101 wrote: post #272

aeyes wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Concepción metro area is 1 million people, Valparaíso/Viña as well. Chileans love to point out that there isn't much outside of Santiago but it's not really true.

is 1 million people a lot? I lived most of my life in metro areas of 15-30 million. when I finally ventured out and saw so many famous places at 1.5 million or less and how I could drive in and then back out of their downtowns in just a few blocks I was kind of shocked on how small most places are

To all the downvotes, did you look at a map of Concepción?

It's small. It's 200k people. It's "metro area" (the 1m) is spread out.

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#334

Post by 39896880 » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 2:45 AM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #324

nox101 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is 1 million people a lot? I lived most of my life in metro areas of 15-30 million. when I finally ventured out and saw so many famous places at 1.5 million or less and how I could drive in and then back out of their downtowns in just a few blocks I was kind of shocked on how small most places are

Jesus. What a post. 15-30 million? Where? There aren't that many on the planet.

I suspect Shenzhen for one

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#335

Post by nox101 » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 2:53 AM UTC

graeme wrote: post #273

nox101 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is 1 million people a lot? I lived most of my life in metro areas of 15-30 million. when I finally ventured out and saw so many famous places at 1.5 million or less and how I could drive in and then back out of their downtowns in just a few blocks I was kind of shocked on how small most places are

There are only 26 areas in the world which are 15-30 million. They have about 550 million people, or about 7% of the world's population. 1 million is fairly large, especially in the context of Chile. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities

Looking at that list there are probably 100s of "metro areas" with > 1m

Look at the UN 2019 population estimates and sort by it. The last 10 areas are

5.49m, 5.49m, 5.38m, 5.38, 5.30m, 5.21m, 5.16m, 5.09m, 5.05m, 5.02m

Given how curves like this usually go there's an extremely long tail to get to 1m

Concepcion has only ~200k people with <1m metro. Looking at a map of the city and with only 200k people it doesn't seem big

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#336

Post by jameshart » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 2:55 AM UTC

gcanyon wrote: post #327

throwup238 wrote: post #3

My key takeaway from this article is that the best place to go see the Milky Way is deep in the Amazon rainforest… where the tree cover is nearly 100% and there isn’t a single road for a hundred miles. That’s a neat collection of graphics. I’m curious how bespoke the creation process is for each graphic or if this is something everyone just does in ArcGis or similar. That last graphic about the Western US being the o…

The sky from the top of Mauna Kea is ridiculous, and it's pretty easy to get there: fly to the big island of Hawaii, then sign up for the tour, I think it's less than $100. The milky way is stunning .

Just check the lunar phase before you book. Made the mistake of being in Hawaii during the full moon, so we didn’t get much of a view of the stars on our Mauna Kea trip. Don’t get me wrong - the experience of visiting to the top and watching the telescopes opening up was worth the trip, but we missed out on a real stargazing opportunity.

And we did see a fireball meteor, so that kinda made up for it. But I don’t think those are guaranteed.

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#337

Post by lazide » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 2:59 AM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #324

nox101 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is 1 million people a lot? I lived most of my life in metro areas of 15-30 million. when I finally ventured out and saw so many famous places at 1.5 million or less and how I could drive in and then back out of their downtowns in just a few blocks I was kind of shocked on how small most places are

Jesus. What a post. 15-30 million? Where? There aren't that many on the planet.

China and India both have tons of places that meet that criteria.

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#338

Post by buzzerbetrayed » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 3:08 AM UTC

Phrodo_00 wrote: post #141

> Far south: too cold for another country Chile has an Antarctic claim going all the way to the pole. If you consider that, it's impossible to go further south If you don't, then we still just run out of land in the Continent. Note that the neighbour competition also applies to Tierra del Fuego, as we've had tensions with Argentina through history over the control of Magallanes Channel.

Chileans also believe they own the moon.

Source: I lived there

Better source: https://www.marcachile.cl/en/interesting-facts-about-chile-a...

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#339

Post by lazide » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 3:12 AM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #325

sandworm101 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> just rent a boat and gave it a try? As someone who once worked tangentially in search and rescue, please do not even consider this. The ocean is a serious thing, doubly so at night. Unless you are renting a boat large enough to come with its own staff, please do not just head over the horizon simply to see the stars. And fyi, the stars at sea move as the boat you stand on moves. They are brighter, but also more bl…

> please do not just head over the horizon simply to see the stars The horizon is only about 5km away. Not that dangerous.

Someone who has no experience in a boat, who is also on a boat they are unfamiliar with, is probably also not that familiar with navigation.

And over the horizon can easily be outside of cell phone range. And is definitely outside of visual range.

So it seems prudent to do a ‘don’t get yourself killed, seriously.’ Warning eh?

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#340

Post by lazide » Wed, Jul 03, 2024, 3:14 AM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #303

langcss wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would a simple cruise ship ticket do it? Or be too lit up at night?

Cruise ships dont have dark decks or other places to view the ocean directly at night. It would be like standing on your porch with the exterior lights of ypur house left on. Avoiding light pollution is not really about seeing stars through light pollution. Thats for astronomers with telescopes. For human eyes it is more about being dark enough thay your iris can relax and let in more light. Try a dark forest, even a…

Also an area that is dark enough for ‘far enough’ that your eyes will naturally adjust to pick up these faint light sources. While some adjustment happens even in a few minutes, the difference between that and after several hours of darkness is mind blowing.

Most folks in a city likely have never been able to experience being able to walk by true starlight on a moonless night, and seeing clearly. It would be nearly impossible to get the right conditions even with a lot of effort.

A city park may be okay ish, but you’re unlikely to ever get the level of sight you’d get walking on a deserted playa in the desert. Not enough time with true darkness, and too much other light pollution.