Antares overlooking an Auxiliary Telescope

Brilliant blue stars litter the southern sky and the galactic bulge of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, hangs serenely above the horizon in this spectacular shot of ESO’s Paranal Observatory.

This image was taken atop Cerro Paranal in Chile, home to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). In the foreground, the open dome of one of the four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes can be seen. The four Auxiliary Telescopes can be utilised together, to form the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI).

The plane of the Milky Way is dotted with bright regions of hot gas. The very bright star towards the upper left corner of the frame is Antares — the brightest star in Scorpius and the fifteenth brightest star in the night sky.

Credit:

ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org)

About the Image

Id:potw1744a
Type:Photographic
Release date:30 October 2017, 06:00
Size:7746 x 8806 px

About the Object

Name:Auxiliary Telescopes, Milky Way
Type:Solar System : Sky Phenomenon : Night Sky : Milky Way
Unspecified : Technology : Observatory : Telescope
Category:Paranal

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