Komunikat prasowy
A High-Tech Oasis in the Desert
Very-Wide-Angle View of the Paranal Area
23 marca 2001
For hundreds of years, probably even longer, astronomers have sought the solitude, far from the disturbing influence of other human activities. Not without reason, their remote observatories have sometimes been likened with monasteries, sacred sites where man is closer to the skies and himself.
Imagine the incredible silence of the desert, only now and then broken by feeble wind gusts. Sense the fading light as the sun sinks towards the distant horizon behind the enormous expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Rich colours develop in the clear and dry desert atmosphere while deep shadows move across the empty land. Marvel at the soft and subtle shades reflected by the layers of clouds above the ocean, far below. The sun sets fast at this low latitude and when the last rays are gone, you feel the chill of the evening air. Slowly, you become aware of increased activity in the distance - now is the moment when another hard night's work is about to begin.
This is the place where ESO operates the VLT - the Paranal Observatory.
Uwagi
Photographer's note
This panoramic view has been assembled in the classical way from 8 individual exposures, taken with an overlap of approximately 30% on either side. This is necessary to achieve a smooth blending of the sky and to correct the different perspective projections in each image frame. The resulting field-of-view is approximately 190°. The exposures were taken in rapid succession from a site near the water tanks at the time of the setting sun, beginning from the East (to the right), in order to compensate for the huge differences in contrast while shooting in the direction of and against the sunlight. KODAK Ektachrome Professional 200 roll film was used with a Linhof Super Technika 6 x 9 camera, fitted with a Schneider-Kreuznach S-Symmar 5.6/100mm lens. The selected frames were scanned by a Polaroid Sprintscan 45i and composed on a G3 Power Macintosh computer in Adobe Photoshop, supported with 1 GB of RAM.
My special thanks go to the Engineering Department at Paranal for moving the four telescopes into a photogenic position, to the astronomers who donated some precious minutes of calibration time and also to the safety officer who drove me and my bulky equipment uphill to this site.
Hans Hermann Heyer (ESO EPR Dept.)
Więcej informacji
CD-ROM with the original file available
To allow optimal reproduction, also for professional use, a new CD-ROM is now available from the EPR Dept., with the full data set of this panoramic photo (23457 x 3496 pix, or 497 x 74 cm at 120 ppi; RGB TIFF; 235 Mb). It also contains a similar photo of the ESO La Silla Observatory (ESO Press Photo eso9947 ; 17500 x 1983 pix; or 440 x 50 cm at 100 ppi; RGB TIFF; 99 Mb).
O komunikacie
| Komunikat nr: | eso0112 |
| Legacy ID: | Photo 11/01 |
| Nazwa: | Paranal |
| Typ: | Unspecified : Technology : Observatory |
| Facility: | Very Large Telescope |
Zdjęcia
Our use of Cookies
We use cookies that are essential for accessing our websites and using our services. We also use cookies to analyse, measure and improve our websites’ performance, to enable content sharing via social media and to display media content hosted on third-party platforms.
ESO Cookies Policy
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy. It carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities for astronomy.
This Cookies Policy is intended to provide clarity by outlining the cookies used on the ESO public websites, their functions, the options you have for controlling them, and the ways you can contact us for additional details.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device by websites you visit. They serve various purposes, such as remembering login credentials and preferences and enhance your browsing experience.
Categories of cookies we use
Essential cookies (always active): These cookies are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of our website. Without these cookies, the website cannot operate correctly, and certain services, such as logging in or accessing secure areas, may not be available; because they are essential for the website’s operation, they cannot be disabled.
Functional Cookies: These cookies enhance your browsing experience by enabling additional features and personalization, such as remembering your preferences and settings. While not strictly necessary for the website to function, they improve usability and convenience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent.
Analytics cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors interact with our website, such as which pages are visited most often and how users navigate the site. This data helps us improve website performance, optimize content, and enhance the user experience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent. We use the following analytics cookies.
Matomo Cookies:
This website uses Matomo (formerly Piwik), an open source software which enables the statistical analysis of website visits. Matomo uses cookies (text files) which are saved on your computer and which allow us to analyze how you use our website. The website user information generated by the cookies will only be saved on the servers of our IT Department. We use this information to analyze www.eso.org visits and to prepare reports on website activities. These data will not be disclosed to third parties.
On behalf of ESO, Matomo will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
Matomo cookies settings:
Additional Third-party cookies on ESO websites: some of our pages display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube.
Such third-party services are outside of ESO control and may, at any time, change their terms of service, use of cookies, etc.
YouTube: Some videos on the ESO website are embedded from ESO’s official YouTube channel. We have enabled YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode, meaning that no cookies are set unless the user actively clicks on the video to play it. Additionally, in this mode, YouTube does not store any personally identifiable cookie data for embedded video playbacks. For more details, please refer to YouTube’s embedding videos information page.
Cookies can also be classified based on the following elements.
Regarding the domain, there are:
- First-party cookies, set by the website you are currently visiting. They are stored by the same domain that you are browsing and are used to enhance your experience on that site;
- Third-party cookies, set by a domain other than the one you are currently visiting.
As for their duration, cookies can be:
- Browser-session cookies, which are deleted when the user closes the browser;
- Stored cookies, which stay on the user's device for a predetermined period of time.
How to manage cookies
Cookie settings: You can modify your cookie choices for the ESO webpages at any time by clicking on the link Cookie settings at the bottom of any page.
In your browser: If you wish to delete cookies or instruct your browser to delete or block cookies by default, please visit the help pages of your browser:
Please be aware that if you delete or decline cookies, certain functionalities of our website may be not be available and your browsing experience may be affected.
You can set most browsers to prevent any cookies being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. profile logging-in, shop check out).
Updates to the ESO Cookies Policy
The ESO Cookies Policy may be subject to future updates, which will be made available on this page.
Additional information
For any queries related to cookies, please contact: pdprATesoDOTorg.
As ESO public webpages are managed by our Department of Communication, your questions will be dealt with the support of the said Department.