A night at the ELT

This time-lapse shows the dome of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert, from sunset on 3 April 2024 to sunrise the next day. A multi-layered cladding is being installed over the dome’s steel skeleton — it will thermally insulate the telescope structure to protect it from the extreme desert environment and help regulate the air temperature. Over the telescope, the stunning night sky shows the Milky Way band and the Magellanic Clouds. Towards the end of the clip, the Moon rises in the east before a new day begins.

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• View from inside the dome that same night.