Sunset Paranal

The Unit Telescopes and Auxiliary Telescopes of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) open their eyes as the sun sets in this timelapse panorama footage of the Paranal Observatory. The night sky is full of stars and astronomical objects, demonstrating the exceptional viewing conditions at the location of the VLT in the Chilean Atacama Desert. The starfield appears to rotate, due to the Earth's rotation on its axis. The bright band of the Milky Way is visible in the top right corner from about 0:50 to about 1:10, and the Magellanic Clouds can also be seen for much of the footage.