April - Venus over the BlackGEM telescopes

In this photograph, Venus is shining brightly over ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The picture was taken just before dawn, towards the east, and also features the diffuse zodiacal light — sunlight scattered by dust particles in the Solar System.

The three domes to the left of the road are the BlackGEM telescopes, built by Radboud University, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), and KU Leuven. BlackGEM searches for the afterglow of some of the most dramatic events in the Universe, such as the collisions of black holes and neutron stars.