Panoramic view from Paranal

Wide panorama of the desert around the ESO Paranal Observatory, home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the world's most advanced ground-based facility for optical and near-infrared astronomy. On the horizon in the centre is the round peak of the 3046-metre Cerro Armazones, the selected site for the 40-metre-class Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Cerro Armazones is located about 20 km east of Cerro Paranal. On the right is the shadow cast by the VISTA survey telescope, located on another peak near Cerro Paranal. Because of the exceptional quality and the dryness of the atmosphere, this area of the Chilean Atacama Desert offers excellent conditions for ground-based astronomy.

This photograph was taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Serge Brunier.