ALL night long they stare at the computer screens, between snatches of coffee. They are wrapped in thick protective clothing - even during the summer. Once the sun goes down, the bitterly cold winds will whip across the mountain.
It is in the driest desert on the planet - unless you count the cold desert of Antarctica. It's also thousands of miles from the "light pollution" of our modern urban sprawls. So on most nights it's an ideal place for watching the stars, as they light up in the dark, cloudless sky.
This is the European Southern Observatory, which is located not in Europe but in northern Chile, on La Silla, a 9,000 foot peak in the Andes. Its squadrons of scientists are there because many critical parts of the universe can't be viewed from telescopes in the northern hemisphere.
They talk of global clusters and dark matter, and their space race is not about launching satellites or building space stations. It's about seeing the farthest and the clearest, catching exploding stars and mapping the outer edges of the universe.
These are exciting times not just at La Silla but for star gazers everywhere well, on this planet at least. The Hubble Space Telescope is capturing ever more distant worlds . . . scientists have found ice floes on one of Jupiter's moons, and have detected possible signs of life in a meteor from Mars... and new radio telescopes are giving detailed pictures of the radiation ripples left by the Big Bang itself.
If you want to see these swirling, molten images - of oranges and reds and yellows, flecked with the darker spots of matter coming into existence - your first stop nowadays is likely to be on the World Wide Web (at, for example, Astronomy Ireland's pages at http://www.iol.ie/ ai).
From Star Trek and The XFiles to this real life astronomy at places such as La Silla, cyberspace and deep space have enjoyed a close relationship. Indeed, the Web owes its very origins to the space age physics complex in Switzerland at Cern. This is Europe's largest research centre, where thousands of scientists are studying the quark gluon plasma which filled the universe a mere 10 microseconds after its birth.
The Web has quickly become an essential tool for professional and amateur astronomers alike, so it's appropriate enough that it should be hosting Astronomy On Line, one of the world's biggest astronomy events, for six weeks starting on October 1st.
The project was set up by the European Southern Observatory and the European Association for Astronomy Education, with support from the European Commission. It will bring together thousands of students, teachers and astronomers across over Europe. Besides secondary schools, the event is open to amateur astronomy clubs and teams put together by friends.
The real time scientific adventures have been "carefully prepared to cater for different age groups, from 12 upwards". These will range from simple introductory class projects to meetings with leading scientists at the participating observatories - and even the chance to use some of their telescopes by remote control. Students will also learn how to download and use some of the thousands of free astronomy programs on the Net.
The project is multi faceted, says one of its organisers, Dr Ian Elliott from Dunsink observatory. "It will get children used to using new communications technologies, and as a spin off they learn a little bit of science. Astronomy is a good medium for getting over science without children realising it - and its attractions are very immediate and very visual."
The most active period will be during European Science Week near the end of November, with six hour spells from 3-9 p.m. The Irish organisers stress that transition year pupils are in the best position to take advantage of the project. "Transition year students have the timetabling freedom and flexibility," Dr Elliott says.
All schools are already entitled to free Internet access under schemes offered by Ireland OnLine (tel 01-855-1739) and Indigo (1850-463446). But the real problem is equipment, software and teacher training.
Astronomy On-Line's Irish steering committee hopes to bring together schools that may need assistance with local industry and staff and students from third level colleges.
Schools wishing to participate should register by October 1st. Contact Dr Ian Elliott (tel 01-838-7911, email icdunsink.dias.ie) or the national steering committee's Gerry Moloney (tel 046-54688).