Mounted image 004: Chajnantor plateau from the south at sunrise in 2007

A view across the Chajnantor plain in the first light of a January morning. The low angle of the incident light nicely reveals the topography of this area: the eastern part of the Andes, on Bolivian and Argentine 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 the 66 separate antennas will spread over the plateau.