Scopes at sunset

Located at the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile and at an altitude of 2400 metres lies La Silla observatory. Like other observatories in this geographical area, La Silla is located far from sources of light pollution and, like the Paranal Observatory, home to the Very Large Telescope, it has one of the darkest night skies on the Earth. The infrastructure of La Silla is also used by many of the ESO Member States for targeted projects including telescopes shown here.