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> Sunrise at VLT - Paranal Observatory, Chile

Sunrise at VLT - Paranal Observatory, Chile

author: Alex Tudorica/Novapix

reference: o-vlt01-00223

Image Size 300 DPI: 69 * 25 cm

The morning has arrived at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the flagship optical observatory of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the most advanced one in the world now. The four 8m telescopes telescopes, named Antu (Sun), Kueyen (Moon), Melipal (Southern Cross), and Yepun (Venus) form a very versatile observatory. They can be used as a single large telescope that adds (incoherently) the light from all four, in order to achieve the light gathering ability of a single 16m telescope. Also, their light can be combined in a coherent manner in order to achieve a resolving power equivalent to the one of a telescope with a diameter as large as the baseline between the units. Of course, all the telescopes can be used individually, which is usually the default mode of operation.

Keywords for this photo:

2014 - ASTRONOMY - AT3 - CHILE - DAWN - DOME - GALAXY - INTERFEROMETRY - M31 - NGC 224 - OBSERVATORY - PANORAMA - PARANAL - POSTER - STAR - STARRY SKY - TELESCOPE - VERY LARGE TELESCOPE - VLT -