Starry night at Cerro Armazones

Spectacular 360° nighttime panorama taken from Cerro Armazones, a 3046-metre mountain in the II Region of Chile. Cerro Armazones is the selected site for the planned Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), and is about 20 km away from Cerro Paranal, home of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). On the right of the image, the Moon is setting over the Pacific Ocean, which is only about 30 km away. In the centre of the image is the Milky Way, where the Carina Nebula and the dark “Coal Sack” nebula are visible. On the right-hand side of the Milky Way are two of our neighbouring galaxies: the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds.

This photograph was taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Serge Brunier.

Links

• ESO Photo Ambassadors webpage.