Yepun takes centre stage

Yepun, Unit Telescope 4 (UT4) takes centre stage on the platform of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The other UTs can be seen to its right. Shining its powerful laser into the Earth's upper atmosphere, Yepun allows astronomers to create artificial stars in a technique called adaptive optics. Adaptive optics allows the corrected optical system to observe finer details of much fainter astronomical objects than is otherwise possible from the ground. The Milky Way can be seen prominently overhead. Captured in this time-lapse during the ESO Ultra High Definition Expedition.