Twilight at Paranal

It is a magical moment of the day at ESO´s Paranal Observatory when the desert plunges into the dark of night and the powerful Very Large Telescope (VLT), starts working. The exceptional atmospheric quality of the site makes the western horizon turn bright red, orange, yellow and even greenish after sunset. In this direction is the Pacific Ocean, only 12 km away from the observatory and covered by clouds, as usual. The very cold oceanic stream and the geography of the coast makes this area of the Atacama Desert one of the driest places on Earth and one of the best sites for ground-based astronomy. The white structure at the bottom left is the roof of the control building, located on the western slope of Cerro Paranal. The telescopes are operated remotely from this building.