ESO's Extremely Large Telescope ELT, Cerro Armazones Chile

Drone video showing the construction of the largest optical telescope on earth, the ELT. The telescope is built by ESO (European Southern Observatory) on Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of Chile. The video was taken in May 2024, the "First Light" of the telescope is expected in 2028.

[@brunodoussau_from_tyumen]

Ce projet concentre en lui tout ce qui rend fier d'être humain.
Tellement hâte de la première lumière.

[@davids1inwestholl45]

Absolutely STUNNING! This is not a simple video of the current state of construction of the ELT. The muted desert colors came alive under the brilliant light of the "golden hour". The geometry of the squares within circles, and the sphere within cubes were a treat for the eyes! Elegant and evocative, the music softly playing in the background was just as lovely for the ears. I found the video wonderfully edited, but it looked like there was so much excellent quality in the filming, it might have made the editing a little bit easier than that of most short documentary films. Well done!

[@atacamaphoto]

Thank you very much for your kind words! Very much appreciated.

[@davids1inwestholl45]

@@atacamaphoto I hope it finishes before Musk ruins the night sky w/ his +44,000 Spacelink sats. And he's not the only one! Bezos is next. Some Australian company. The PRC's Baidu GPS, Galileo, Russia's GLONASS, all of the world's weather sats, gravity study sats. They're also making LEO & MEO potentially un-passable (no more astronauts in space), no Moon base. as soon as a few of them start colliding & setting off the Kessler chain-reaction.
I'd give my left arm to see the southern sky's night view of the center of the Milky Way, and the dwarf galaxies!

[@christiandude6889]

Absolutely stunning again. I am looking forward to the ELT‘s first light approximately in the year 2028 / 2030….

[@atacamaphoto]

Thank you! Yes, me too, cannot wait to see it in operation and making new discoveries!🔭🔭🔭

[@time-lapseseb1141]

Your videography is not just a documentation of the status of the construction (which I personaly enjoy asvwell) but also artistic and you can enjoy to be there right in the moment. Wundervoll!

[@atacamaphoto]

Thank you very much, I am very happy you like it! More to come soon.

[@Paranalense]

Great views Gerd, thanks for the video.

[@atacamaphoto]

You are welcome! Glad you like it.

[@segundoruizmp3]

ECCELLENT CORDIALI SALUTI 🇨🇱 TERRYFM OVALLE DE CHILE 🇨🇱

[@cogoid]

Just what it says on the package -- an extremely large telescope indeed. Very cool video!

[@atacamaphoto]

Thanks a lot, I am happy that you enjoy the video!😀

[@cyberlopo2478]

Superbe ! Je vois que la construction de l'ELT avance bien, bon courage à toute l'équipe en charge de ce magnifique projet scientifique ! ^^

[@teddymills1]

When will the mirror be ready? How long to cool? Does building construction have to wait for the mirror?

[@atacamaphoto]

The mirror is composed of 798 segments. They are fabricated at this time and nearly one hundred are already at the Paranal Observatory nearby. The mirror will be installed after the building is finished. If you mean the cooling of the instruments, that takes a few days.

[@aldocontreras7032]

Que maravilla ver este avance

[@fenggao8620]

Amazing ! I was travelling quite often to Paranal from 2018 to 2020 and back then I cannot see much on top of Cerro Armazones, now it's coming together...

[@atacamaphoto]

yes you can see it from the road, its growing rapidly

[@chris-yo5vt]

Hola Gerd, very nice inside view of the EELT, un abrazo de Francia. Christian.

[@atacamaphoto]

Hola, thanks a lot. Which Christian?

[@chris-yo5vt]

@@atacamaphoto hola Gerd, the French one that was in Garching working at ESO ;-).

[@jarekk.8247]

Elon Musk should build a 1 km telescope. ;D

[@bellatorixrex]

You really love Elon heh?