Cylindrical panoramic Adaptive Optics
The four Unit Telescopes (UTs) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) on ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile have a very special inbuilt technology known as Adaptive Optics (AO). The tech involves firing strong laser beams into the upper atmosphere, which cause it to glow and create fake "stars". By adjusting for how these fakes should look, the mirrors on the UTs can be altered slightly to compensate, producing much clearer astronomical images. This paranoma shows this in action.
Links
- Extended to 360 x 180 degrees (with black) version of this image
- Equirectangular projection of this image
- Fisheye version of this image
F. Kamphues/ESO
About the Image
Id: | 16fkc18343-panorama-cylindrical-cc |
Type: | Photographic |
Release date: | 12 October 2016, 16:34 |
Size: | 13934 x 4638 px |
About the Object
Name: | Adaptive Optics, VLT Unit Telescopes |
Type: | Unspecified : Technology : Observatory |
Category: | Paranal |
Image Formats
Large JPEG
11.1 MB
Publication TIFF 10K
46.7 MB
Publication TIFF 4K
7.4 MB
Publication JPEG
1.1 MB
Screensize JPEG
96.3 KB