King of the cosmos

This image transports you to the most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory in the world: the Very Large Telescope (VLT), located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The shadowy figure gazing at the dark skies is photographer Babak Tafreshi, as captured by his fellow ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek.

For a moment, place yourself in Babak’s — or indeed Petr’s — shoes. Here, you are king of the cosmos. The site is silent, dark, still. You stare up at the pristine Chilean night sky, which, with its extremely low levels of both light pollution and water vapour, offers spectacular nighttime scenery to delight any astrophotographer or stargazer. With your trusty camera on hand, a night of amazing photo opportunities lies ahead; you anticipate spending clear hour after clear hour documenting the heavens, with no fear of cloudy weather appearing, uninvited, to spoil the view.

The Large Magellanic Cloud is visible at the centre of the frame, while Canopus, the brightest star in the constellation Carina (The Keel), watches over the starry scene to the upper right.

Petr took this image while participating in the ESO Fulldome Expedition, during which a team travelled to Chile to gather spectacular images for use in ESO’s Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre. The ESO Supernova is currently under construction at ESO Headquarters in Garching (near Munich), Germany, and is due to open in spring 2018.