Immersive Paranal World

An equirectangular 360-degree panorama taken during the ESO Ultra HD Expedition captures ESO's Paranal Observatory. The four 8.2m Unit Telescopes (UTs) — Antu, Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun — can be seen below the milky Way, along with the four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs), making up the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The telescopes can work together, to form a giant ‘interferometer’, the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer, allowing astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes.

©ESO (European Southern Observatory) / Y. Beletsky

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, formally: European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere; French: Organisation Européenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l'Hémisphere Austral) is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

VISTA from the inside

Stitched 360 degree panorama view of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)

©ESO. (European Southern Observatory)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, formally: European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere; French: Organisation Européenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l'Hémisphere Austral) is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope array

This 360 degree panorama shot shows ESO’s Very Large Telescope array on top of the 2600-metre-high Cerro Paranal in the Chilean Atacama Desert. The largest structures are the enclosures of the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of the VLT, the low lying building is the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) laboratory and the spherical structures are the 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes.

©ESO. (European Southern Observatory)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, formally: European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere; French: Organisation Européenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l'Hémisphere Austral) is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

Panorama inside UT3's dome

This 360 degree panorama shows the inside of the VLT Unit Telescope 3 - named Melipal. ESO's Very Large Telescope is the world's most advanced optical instrument, consisting of four Unit Telescopes with main mirrors of 8.2m diameter and four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes. The four Unit Telescopes are named after names of objects in the sky in the Mapuche (Mapudungun) language.

©ESO. (European Southern Observatory)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, formally: European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere; French: Organisation Européenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l'Hémisphere Austral) is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

View inside a VLT Unit Telescope

360 degree panorama taken inside the dome of the Very Large Telescope Unit 3.

©ESO. (European Southern Observatory)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, formally: European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere; French: Organisation Européenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l'Hémisphere Austral) is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

Panoramic view inside the dome

360 degree panorama taken inside the dome of the Very Large Telescope Unit 3.

©ESO. (European Southern Observatory)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, formally: European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere; French: Organisation Européenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l'Hémisphere Austral) is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

Panorama of VISTA from the inside

360 degree panorama of VISTA from the inside; with the dome open. VISTA is a wide-field telescope designed for performing a series of very broad surveys of the sky in infrared light. Thanks to its fairly large primary mirror, with a diameter of 4m, these surveys will show quite faint objects. The goal of these surveys is to create large catalogues of celestial objects for statistical studies and to identify new targets for the VLT.

©ESO. (European Southern Observatory)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, formally: European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere; French: Organisation Européenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l'Hémisphere Austral) is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.