A day in the Atacama Desert

This video shows the immediate surroundings of ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert. 

At an altitude of 2600 metres, this remote and extremely dry site offers one of the clearest skies on Earth, a necessary condition to perform cutting-edge astronomical observations.

The Pacific Ocean, visible in the background, is located only 12 kilometres away, and is almost always covered by a low-altitude cloud layer.