Cerro Armazones from above

The image of Cerro Armazones in Chile, as seen in Google Earth, reveals the site testing equipment which ESO has placed at the 3064m high top (upper left in the image). Cerro Armazones is a possible home for the future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), located not very far from the ESO Paranal Observatory, home to the flagship Very Large Telescope.

On the lower right of the image, below Cerro Armazones at an altitude of 2817m, we can see small telescopes operated by the Instituto de Astronomia de la Universidád Católia del Norte (UCN) in Antofagasta.

The ELT programme office has studied half a dozen potential sites for the future ELT observatory, which, with its 40-metre-class diameter, will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky. Various aspects need to be considered in the site selection process. On the ELT Site Selection Advisory Committee’s final short list for the recommended site, Armazones is also the committee’s preferred site, because it has the best balance of sky quality across all aspects and can be operated in an integrated fashion with the existing Paranal Observatory.