Sky around the mountain

The sky appears to turn overhead due to the Earth's rotation through this night in the Chilean Atacama Desert. In static view through this fulldome footage is Cerro Paranal, a 2600-metre high mountain and home of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), whose sophisticated technology makes the most of the excellent viewing conditions this site offers to study the Universe. The bright band of our galaxy, the Milky Way, rotates into view on the left, exhibiting the breathtaking skies that can be seen at this location.