The Very large Telescope
The European Very Large Telescope (VLT) is the new flagship in European
Astronomy. The VLT is a technical masterpiece.
Here is an image (courtesy of ESO) showing the enclosures of the four
8.2-m telescopes (that constitute the main part of the VLT) during
day time.
The image above here and the two below are
from my first three night run at the VLT in August 1999 as the first Danish
visiting astronomer at the VLT (there was a solar eclipse at the time
in Europe so nobody else wanted to go...). Observing with the VLT was
really great. Especially the night of August 12, 1999,
was an unforgetable experience. I was thrilled all night long as the
seeing monitor consistently reported a seeing below 0.5 arcsec
(for non-astronomers this means little, but it essentially means that the
view to the cosmos was crystal clear - a bit like looking through glass rather
than boiling water).
Two of the domes (UT2 and UT3 - both not yet completed at the time) in the
early morning.
The 8.2-m mirrow of the UT1 telescope , which I used during the run.
You can find more information about the VLT at the
ESO homepages (specifically
here and
here).