ANTU in its lair

This rather eccentric image shows one of the Unit Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), inside its protective dome. The VLT consists of four such telescopes, each having a main mirror some 8.2 metres across, accompanied by four smaller, auxiliary, telescopes. Together they amount to one of the most powerful astronomical facilities in the world. Each of the four Unit Telescopes has been given a name from the indigenous Mapuche (Mapudungun) language: this one is called Antu, which means The Sun.

Links to alternative projections of this image:

• Extended to 360 x 180 degrees (with black) version of this image