At the beginning of dawn the southern Milky Way is photographed over the barren Atacama Desert near Cerro Paranal Observatory in Chile. Bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri are near the horizon and the Southern Cross (Crux) appear above them. Higher in the sky is the large red emission Carina nebula. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are on the right around the South Celestial Pole. 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).