Among the giants

The stars move in the sky overhead in this timelapse fulldome footage taken at ESO's Paranal Observatory, the home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). At the edges three of the giant Unit Telescopes (UTs) of the VLT swivel to keep watch on the focus of their observations through the night. Each UT has a main mirror 8.2 metres in diameter, making them some of the largest single-mirror telescopes in the world. Furthermore, they can be used in combination as a 16-metre mirror telescope, making the VLT effectively the largest optical telescope in the world.