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Credit: ESO Aerial view of the Paranal summit with the observatory platform on which most of the VLT buildings are in place. Also seen is the central (mostly) subterranean laboratory in which the light beams from all the telescopes will come together at the interferometric instruments. The VLT control building is on the smaller and slightly lower platform to the lower left.(Photo taken on December 12, 1998). |
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Credit: ESO A view of the Paranal platform with the four 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescopes (UTs) and the foundations for the 1.8-m VLT Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) that together will be used as the VLT Interferometer (VLTI). The three ATs will move on rails (yet to be installed) between the thirty observing stations above the holes that provide access to the underlying tunnel system. The light beams from the individual telescopes will be guided towards the centrally located, partly underground Interferometry Laboratory in which the VLTI instruments will be set up.(This photo was taken in December, 1999, at which time some construction materials were still present on the platform; they were electronically removed in this reproduction.) |
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Credit: ESO Wide-angle photo of the second 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope, KUEYEN, obtained on March 10, 1999, with the main mirror and its cell in place at the bottom of the telescope structure. A Test Camera is positioned at the Cassegrain focus, inside this mirror cell. The Paranal Inauguration on March 5, 1999, took place under this telescope that was tilted towards the horizon to accommodate nearly 300 persons on the observing floor. |
