ESO’s VLT then and now

This clip shows historical footage of ESO’s Paranal Observatory, where ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) is located, as well as recent shots of the observatory. The construction of these facilities in Chile’s Atacama Desert started in the early 1990s, when the top of Cerro Paranal was blasted off to make space for the telescopes that make up the VLT. The first of the telescopes to be completed, the Unit Telescope 1, started observing the skies in 1998, 25 years ago this week.