First cladding installed on the ELT dome

ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is quickly coming together before our eyes. In this webcam image over Cerro Armazones in Chile from 16 February 2024, the setting Sun illuminates the first pieces of cladding installed on the ELT dome. The hemispheric structure of the dome will be encased in thermally insulated aluminium cladding to protect the delicate mirrors from the harsh desert environment, enabling the world’s biggest eye on the sky to capture the cosmos in never-before-seen detail for a long time to come.