Stairway to the stars

Standing on top of a flight of stairs, ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek reaches towards what appears to be one very bright star among many. This is in fact the planet Jupiter shining against a backdrop of thousands of stars, among the billions that make up the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way arcs across this panorama, leading to the four unit telescopes of the world-class ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The Milky Way’s two satellite galaxies: the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds can be seen in the far left of the photo.