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ESO 12/08 - Associated Images

2 May 2008
For Immediate Release

Solar Games at Paranal

ESO Staff Share Stunning Images of Solar Phenomena

An example of a green flash seen from Cerro Paranal. The image was taken by Stéphane Guisard (ESO), who owns the copyright. On this dedicated page, you can see many more photos of the green flash.
Please remember that looking at the Sun, especially through an optical device (camera, telescope, binoculars, etc.), is very dangerous, and could cause immediate blindness. Do not attempt to observe the Sun unless you know what you are doing.

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ESO staff Guillaume Blanchard was able to capture the rather rare blue flash while observing the sunset on Christmas eve from the Paranal Residencia. The image was taken with a digital camera attached to a telescope with a 480-mm focal length. The very intense blue seen on the image, as well as the purple edges, do not leave any doubt on the reality of the phenomenon.
Please remember that looking at the Sun, especially through an optical device (camera, telescope, binoculars, etc.), is very dangerous, and could cause immediate blindness. Do not attempt to observe the Sun unless you know what you are doing.
Image copyright Guillaume Blanchard (ESO).

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Photo of the morning sky above the Paranal Residencia taken by ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky. The Milky Way is nicely seen along with its numerous dark dust lanes and amazing nebulae. The Zodiacal light - sunlight reflected by interplanetary dust - is clearly visible as the band of light that is inclined with respect to the Milky Way by about 40-50 degrees. The planet Venus is also visible in this photo, just above the Residencia.
Image copyright Yuri Beletsky (ESO).

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At Paranal, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope, the sky is so dark that the famous and extremely difficult to observe Gegenschein (or "counter shine") can be seen here in its full glory. This is a faint brightening of the night sky in the region of the ecliptic directly opposite the Sun, caused by reflection of sunlight by interplanetary dust in the Solar system. The Gegenschein is seen in this image as a band running diagonally from the top left to lower right. The image was obtained by Yuri Beletsky in October 2007 using a digital camera equipped with a 10-mm wide-angle lens and installed on a portable equatorial mount. The total exposure time was about 45 min. The weather conditions during the observations were excellent: the sky transparency was close to perfect, which allowed Yuri to capture very faint details of the Gegenschein and reveal its fine structure.
Image copyright Yuri Beletsky (ESO).

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