zodiacal light, milky way and the LMC and SMC
Category: Places
Photo and caption by Christoph Malin
The three auxiliary telescopes (small support telescopes to the VLT's) stand under a glorious Milky Way rising after sunset at ESO's Paranal Platform (European Southern Observatory). Visible is zodiacal light, a diffuse white glow caused by sunlight scattered by space dust in the zodiacal cloud. while at light polluted areas it is so faint that invisible, the dark sky at Paranal makes it visible again even with the unaided eye. Left of the Milky Way are the small and large Magellanic cloud, only visible with the southern sky.
Location: cerro paranal, european southern observatory, chile
