Chajnantor sunrise panorama 2007 *

A view across the Chajnantor plain in the first light of morning in January. The low angle of the incident light nicely reveals the topography of this area : the eastern part of the Andes mountain range, on Bolivian and Argentinian territory, is already illuminated, while the west (Chile) is still shaded by the 5000-metre-high mountains. The heart of the ALMA antenna array will be located close to the centre of this image, though 66 antennas will spread over the plains.

An amazing interactive virtual tour is available here

This image is available as a mounted image in the ESOshop.