Yepun to the Universe

The bright band of the Milky Way appears to rotate overhead during this timelapse panorama footage at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). This is due to Earth's rotation, and to the movement of the camera, which pans round in the direction of the telescope, eventually bringing Unit Telescope 4 (Yepun) into view. Yepun is the origin of the laser light seen cutting across the top right corner earlier in the footage, and sends up the beams to create an artificial guide star. This is part of the Adaptive Optics system designed to counteract the intereference of the Earth's atmosphere with the light reaching us from the Universe, to create sharper astronomical images. In the last few seconds of the video, one of the four Auxiliary Telescopes comes into view just behind Yepun. These additional movable instruments feed light into the VLT Interferometer, enabling even higher resolution images.