The VLT at Paranal Observatory

Image of the interior of one of the units of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. A laser beam is being launched to create an artificial star at an altitude of 90 km in the Earth´s mesosphere. This Laser Guide Star (LGS) is part of the Adaptive Optics system, which allows astronomers to remove the effects of atmospheric turbulence, producing images almost as sharp as if the telescope were in space. The image was taken by Stefan Seip, one of the ESO Photo Ambassadors.