Mounted image 104: The Sun hides behind APEX

The Sun lies hidden by the secondary mirror of APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope, on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama region, 5100 metres above sea level. APEX is the largest submillimetre-wavelength telescope operating in the southern hemisphere, observing the cold and distant Universe for astronomers. At one of the highest observatory sites on the planet, the Sun beats mercilessly down through the thin atmosphere.