Guide star in the Milky Way

Three of the four Unit Telescopes that make up ESO's VLT reflect the glow of the laser light being sent up by the fourth. From left to right, the Unit Telescopes are Antu, Kueyen and Melipal, all meaningful names in the Mapuche language. The laser guide star being generated by the fourth Unit Telescope (Yepun) is part of the Adaptive Optics system, state-of-the-art technology that corrects the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere to produce high quality observational data. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, can be seen as a bright band across the sky.