Paranal Residencia and Southern Constellations

Astronomers residency, built under the surface, in the barren Atacama Desert of Chile, like a human base on another planet. From the photographer: “In the left side of the sky is upside down Orion, being seen from the Southern Hemisphere. Then comes Sirius, the brightest star in the entire night sky. Moving further right, we see Canopus, the second brightest star in the Earth night sky. Next to it, is well spotted the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, a duo of irregular dwarf galaxies, which are members of the Local Group and are orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. In the background sky, the green and reddish faint light, is an atmospheric phenomenon known as the airglow.

Cerro Paranal is home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT); an array of optical telescopes operated by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. The VLT consist of four telescopes with main mirrors of 8.2m diameter, which are generally used separately but can be used together to achieve very high angular resolution.