Night sky at Paranal

This long exposure image shows the star trails over the Paranal Observatory, which is visible on the mountain on the right side. The orange light reaching from one of the telescopes up into the night sky is a laser, used to measure the turbulences of the atmosphere. Due to the long exposure also the laser changed from a thin line, to a long fan.

Up in the night sky two elongated, cloud-like objects are visible. These are the Small and the Large Magellanic Clouds, dwarf galaxies surrounding our Milky Way.