Milky way above NTT - La Silla observatory
author: B.A.Tafreshi/Novapix
reference: o-sia04-00012
Image Size 300 DPI: 31 * 44 cm
A curtain of stars surrounds the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) in this photograph from La Silla Observatory, Operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which sits at 2400 metres above sea level on the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert. This telescope housing was considered a technological breakthrough when completed in 1989. Visible to the left of the Milky Way is the bright orange star Antares at the heart of Scorpius (The Scorpion). Saturn can be seen as the brightest point to the upper left of Antares and Alpha and Beta Centauri glow in the upper right of the image. The Southern Cross (Crux) and the Coalsack dark nebula are also visible looming above Alpha and Beta Centauri. La Silla was ESOs first observatory, inaugurated in 1969. The NTT was the first telescope in the world to have a computer-controlled main mirror (active optics).