Auburn nights at La Silla

Cloud cover is a rare sight over La Silla mountain in Chile, which hosts one of the most productive observatories in the world with an average of 300 clear nights per year. Away from city lights and at an altitude of 2400 metres above sea level, the stars, dust and gas of the Milky Way can be seen clearly arching across the sky. The many telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, including the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) and ESO 3.6-metre telescope, will operate over most nights of the year even through the haze of light cloud cover.