The arch of the Milky Way photographed over the Cerro Paranal Observatory in the barren Atacama Desert. With its dark, steady, and transparent sky, Paranal is home to some of the world's leading telescopes. Operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) the Very Large Telescope (VLT) is located on Paranal, composed of four 8-meter telescopes and smaller auxiliary telescopes, each 1.8 m in aperture (left), which are important elements of the VLT interferometer.