The Cerro Paranal region of Chile is home to the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (which is actually four 8.2-meter telescopes) and not surprisingly some of the best conditions for observing the night sky on the planet, as shown in the video below:
Can you find the Magellanic Clouds? For the real astronomy nerds in the audience, how about 47 Tucanae?
Of course the sky isn't really moving, so here's what it would look like if the camera weren't rotating along with the planet:
Hat tips to APOD and Bad Astronomy
Extremely cool video! (The first one was awesome. The second one didn't load when I tried to see it.) It is really amazing what the sky looks like when you are in a place that's clear enough and dark enough to see it. Great post.
ReplyDeleteSince the second video wasn't working, I found the link on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1O66XsbrOA
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