Dramatic moonset

The full Moon has almost set behind Mount Paranal. The VLT telescopes have already been closed after a long night of observations. Contrary to what one may think, this picture is no montage. It was taken from about 14 km away, with a 500-mm lens. The choice of the right perspective makes the Moon appear very large in relation to the VLT platform. Additionally, the flattening effect of the long focal length, combined with the extraordinary quality of the picture, gives the impression that the Moon lies just behind the telescopes, even though it is in fact about 30 000 times further away.