A VLT Auxiliary Telescope watches the Milky Way

Thanks to the exceptional quality of the sky at Cerro Paranal, a magnificent Milky Way is captured over one of the VLT Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) at Cerro Paranal in Chile. The VLT has four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes (UTs), plus four 1.8-metre ATs, one of which is seen in this photograph. The ATs are dedicated to interferometry, a technique which allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes. The ATs can be moved across the platform over rails to 30 different positions.