Galactic neighbours

In the foreground we can see the three of the four movable auxiliary 1.8 metre telescopes situated at the ESO-operated Very Large Telescope(VLT), operating with their domes open. The Large and Small Magellanic Cloud galaxies are visible as bright patches in the centre, neighbouring galaxies visible to the naked eye. The VLT is based at the Cerro Paranal site in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.