Atacama Stargazing Photos

Every one of the nine stargazing tours on this site includes some kind of night photo, but they differ a lot in who takes it, how many you get and when it reaches you. If the photo is a big part of why you are booking, Andestellar’s Pro Guided Stargazing & Astrophotography is the tour built around it: a photographer who specializes in astrophotography, three photos per person, sent three to five days later, from $49 per person.

If you want one good portrait and the strongest telescopes, The Roofless Experience is the other one to look at. If a souvenir shot is enough, the cheaper tours all include one.

Photo inclusions on every tour

This is what each GetYourGuide listing says about photos. Where a listing doesn’t give a number or a delivery time, the table says so; ask the operator if it matters to you.

Prices are the GetYourGuide “from” price per person. Layana adds one exception: on full-moon lunar tours, only the telescope eyepiece is photographed, not you.

Why Andestellar is the photo pick

Andestellar runs its photos as a separate session alongside the telescopes. While the guide works the 12-inch telescope and a Unistellar smart telescope, the photographer takes people for their portraits, and the group is split if needed so no section has more than eight people. You start in a lounge chair under a blanket, hear a talk on astronomy and ancestral worldviews, then have a cocktail hour with hot and cold drinks before the telescopes and photos. Pickup is from your hotel.

The catalogue rating is 5.0, from only 10 reviews, so it is a young listing compared with Llama Stargazing or Observatory Licanatay, each with close to 800. When we checked in October 2026, the next available date was priced at $49 per person. Our full Andestellar breakdown lists everything it includes.

Other tours that take good photos

The Roofless Experience gives you one professional photo per person and asks you to come in colorful clothes. It runs only when the moon is below 50% illumination and observes with two 16-inch telescopes, the largest size any of these listings gives. It is from $65 per person with 4.9 from 131 reviews.

The Owner Experience splits the group by language: one half does the telescopes while the other does the photo shoot, then everyone meets for a tasting of wine, hot drinks, cheeses and salami. Its itinerary gives 40 minutes at a viewpoint for photos, which is generous.

Atacama Dark Sky is a different kind of photo night. A smart telescope captures nebulae and galaxies in color and you get those deep-sky images the next day, plus photos of you against the galactic plane. The operator faces the galactic center from April to September and the outer edge of the Milky Way from October to March. It is the most expensive tour on this site, from $186 per person, for a small group.

Layana Travel promises two or three individual photos, more than any listing except Andestellar, from $43 per person.

How to get a good portrait

A night portrait is a long exposure, and a few habits make a real difference.

• Wear bright, colorful clothes. Both Andestellar and The Roofless Experience recommend it, because dark jackets disappear against a dark desert.
• Stay completely still until the photographer says you are done. Any movement during the exposure shows up as blur.
• Follow the pose you are given. The photographer knows where the Milky Way sits in the frame that night.
• Keep your phone screen off and never use a white flashlight near the camera. The Roofless Experience bans flashlights at its site.
• Book near new moon if the Milky Way is the point. The core of the Milky Way is high in the evening from roughly April to September; from October to March you get its outer arms and the Magellanic Clouds. The next new moon is 10 October 2026 and the next full moon 26 October. Our full moon guide explains which tours run on bright nights.

What your own phone can and cannot do

Recent phones with a night mode can record the brighter stars and, braced on something steady, sometimes a faint Milky Way. That is a good souvenir of the sky itself.

What a phone struggles with is the shot the tours sell: you, sharp and lit, in front of a detailed Milky Way. That takes a camera on a tripod, a long exposure and someone controlling the light on your face, which is why it is the photographer’s job on these tours. Shooting through a telescope eyepiece by hand is hit and miss too, though the moon is the easiest target to try.

Use your phone for the moments between, and leave the portrait to the person with the tripod. Keep the screen dim so you don’t spoil your own night vision or anyone else’s.

Which photo tour to book

Book Andestellar if the photos matter most and you want three of them. Book The Roofless Experience for one professional portrait plus two 16-inch telescopes, or the Owner Experience if you also want a proper tasting. If you mainly want a souvenir, Observatory Licanatay at $31 and Llama Stargazing at $33 both include one.

For prices side by side, see our Atacama stargazing tour prices page, and pack properly with our guide to how cold Atacama stargazing gets. You can also compare all nine tours on the homepage or check Andestellar’s availability for your dates.