A 360 degree panorama of a unique cloudscape over La Silla *

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A 360 degree view of a rare cloudscape over La Silla, in the southern edges of the Atacama Desert, home of ESO's first observing site. Here ESO operates three major telescopes: the 3.6-metre telescope, the New Technology Telescope and the 2.2-metre Max-Planck-ESO telescope. They are equipped with state-of-the art instruments such as HARPS, the best extrasolar planet finder in the world. The dome in the centre of the image belongs to the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, commissioned in 1977 and completely upgraded in 1999, and to which HARPS is mounted. At the far right of the image is the 15-metre Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST), built in 1987, decommissioned in 2003, and replaced by the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope on the 5100 m Chajnantor plateau.

An amazing interactive virtual tour is available here.

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