The ELT's future home

In the remote, arid Chilean desert, ESO is busy constructing the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world. The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will be built atop the Cerro Armazones mountain in the Atacama desert. The observatory will produce images of the Universe 16 times sharper than from the Hubble Space Telescope.

Currently, the foundations for building work are still ongoing, with the top of the mountain flattened and a winding road built to the summit. These incredible aerial drone visuals from Gerhard Hüdepohl show the future location of the ELT against the tranquil backdrop of the barren Chilean desert, as of September 2016.