The Milky Way Over Paranal

It's not the sky that's falling. More accurately, the Earth is rising. The Earth's rotation gives a continually changing view to all Earth observers, including those measuring the universe at the Paranal Observatory . The observatory's four, massive 8.2 meter telescope units are situated on top of the 2,600 meter high mountain, Cerro Paranal , in the dry Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The individual unit telescopes can be used separately or in combination. Their names , Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun , are taken from the Mapuche language. Fittingly they translate to Sun, Moon, Evening Star, and Southern Cross . Together they are fittingly known as the European Southern Observatory 's Very Large Telescope . A higher time resolution version of the above movie is available here .