The Extremely Large Telescope Will be Here

A major preference of southern sky compared to the northern view is how the center of the Milky Way rises overhead with a splendid view of the central bulge and disk of our own galaxy. Here the scene is photographed over Cerro Armazones; a 3064m high mountain located in the Chilean Coast Range. Because it is dark, has steady atmospheric condition (good seeing), and it receives almost 350 cloudless in a year it is selected by the European Southern Observatory as the site for the planned European Extremely Large Telescope (EELT). In 2018 on this very location EELT will receive its first light as the world’s largest telescope with aperture of 42 meters; four times the diameter of the current largest optical telescopes. As recorded in this photo the atmospheric conditions above the site are monitored by researchers now.