The VLT at Dusk

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is located at Paranal Observatory in the remote Atacama Desert of northern Chile. The VLT is one of the most advanced ground-based telescopes on Earth. The 8.2-m diameter unit telescopes are housed in compact, thermally controlled buildings, which rotate synchronously with the telescopes. This design minimizes any adverse effects on the observing conditions, for instance from air turbulence in the telescope tube, which might otherwise occur due to variations in temperature and wind flow. Pictured here are also three out of the four auxiliary telescopes that support the VLT for interferometric observations.