Magellanic Clouds over Paranal

This image shows the sky over two of the four 1.8-metre VLT Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) in ESO's Paranal observatory(Chile). The ATs are entirely dedicated to interferometry, a technique which allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes. The configuration of the ATs can be changed by moving them across the platform between 30 different observing positions.

The Large (below) and Small (above) Magellanic Clouds can be seen above the telescopes. These nearby irregular dwarf galaxies can be easily observed with the unaided eye in the southern hemisphere.