Night-time in Paranal

This image, taken by ESO's Photo Ambassador Christoph Malin, shows the amazing sky over Paranal, home to ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

The Milky Way can clearly be seen above three of the four 1.8-metre VLT Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs). The ATs are entirely dedicated to interferometry, a technique which allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes. The configuration of the ATs can be changed by moving them across the platform between 30 different observing positions.

The left part of the image shows the Large (below) and Small (above) Magellanic Clouds. These nearby irregular dwarf galaxies can be easily observed with the unaided eye in the southern hemisphere.