Shielding the Extremely Large Telescope from the Atacama Desert

We're building our Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in the Atacama Desert, which boasts some of the darkest skies on Earth but is at the same time a very harsh environment. That's why we're currently covering the ELT steel dome with special cladding, which includes insulating layers and sheets of aluminium. This will protect the ELT and its delicate optics from the external environment.