The summit platform (1997)

An aerial view of the Paranal summit in late 1997 with the large observatory platform on which the many components of VLT were being installed.

The four enclosures (telescope `domes') are seen, three of which have been closed. The long, subterranean interferometric tunnel is in the middle. The concrete supports for the smaller, moveable telescopes of the VLT Interferometric Array are located all over the platform.

The VLT control building, from where the observations with the four large telescopes will be made, is placed on a smaller and slightly lower platform in the foreground.