09 November 2009: Rare 360-degree Panorama of the Southern Sky

The Milky Way arches across this rare 360-degree panorama of the night sky above the Paranal platform, home of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The image was made from 37 individual frames with a total exposure time of about 30 minutes, taken in the early morning hours. The Moon is just rising and the zodiacal light shines above it, while the Milky Way stretches across the sky opposite the observatory. Credit: ESO/H.H. Heyer.

This image in high-resolution is available on the image archive: http://www.eso.org/gallery/v/ESOPIA/Paranal/vlt-mw-potw-hires.tif.html