Spheres on Spheres

During one of his visits to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory in Chile, astrophotographer and ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky was fortunate enough to capture this breathtaking sight: three celestial spheres — each very different! — lined up beautifully in the sky.

The largest sphere in this photo is one of the VLT’s four Auxiliary Telescopes. These movable telescopes can be arranged in different configurations to achieve different scientific goals.

Floating above the auxiliary telescope is the Moon. The setting Sun illuminates only a sliver of our rocky satellite, though some of the lunar maria — the dark, sea-like remnants of lava flows from the Moon’s early days — are visible, too. Near the top of the image is Venus, the second planet from the Sun and our planetary neighbour.