Very Large Telescope

ESO's Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal in Chile's Atacama Desert, seen from the air at sunset with the Pacific on the horizon. The four big enclosures each hold a Unit Telescope with an 8.2-meter main mirror, and the small domes below hold movable auxiliary telescopes. Working together, they form a giant interferometer with baselines up to 140 meters, sharp enough to pick out detail no single mirror could. At 2,635 meters, the site is so remote that everything has to be brought in.