The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way" class="extiw" title="w:Milky Way">Milky Way</a> arches across this 360-degree <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Panoramics" title="Category:Panoramics">panorama</a> of the night sky above the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranal_Observatory" class="extiw" title="w:Paranal Observatory">Paranal Observatory</a>, home of ESO’s <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Very_Large_Telescope" title="Category:Very Large Telescope">Very Large Telescope</a>. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon" class="extiw" title="w:Moon">Moon</a> is just rising and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/zodiacal_light" class="extiw" title="w:zodiacal light">zodiacal light</a> shines above it, while the Milky Way stretches across the sky opposite the observatory. To the right in the image and below the arc of the Milky Way, two of our galactic neighbours, the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Small_Magellanic_Cloud" title="Category:Small Magellanic Cloud">Small</a> and <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Large_Magellanic_Cloud" title="Category:Large Magellanic Cloud">Large</a> Magellanic Clouds, can be seen. The open telescope domes of the world’s most advanced ground-based astronomical observatory are all visible in the image: the four smaller 1.8-metre Aŭiliary Telescopes that can be used together in the interferometric mode, and the four giant 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes. The image was made from 37 individual frames with a total exposure time of about 30 minutes, taken in the early morning hours.
ESO/H.H. Heyer
CC BY 4.0
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/vlt-mw-potw/">ESO</a>