Watching the sky

Fisheye lens footage of the starry sky above ESO's Paranal Observatory. The sky appears to move overhead through the night, due to the Earth's rotation on its axis, and our own galaxy the Milky Way is visible as a bright band arching across it. Along the lower right edge of the lens, the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) are visible. Each one has a main mirror 8.2 metres in diameter, and several instruments installed that are specialised to study different astronomical objects. The instrumentation programme is the most ambitious ever conceived for a single observatory, covering all major observing modes required to tackle most current front-line research projects.