Wee La Silla Cloudscape Planet

This wee planet by Nikki Smith was created from a 360 degree view of a rare cloudscape over La Silla, in the southern edges of the Atacama Desert,... more

by Nikki Marie Smith

Title

Wee La Silla Cloudscape Planet

Artist

Nikki Marie Smith

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

This wee planet by Nikki Smith was created from a 360 degree view of a rare cloudscape over La Silla, in the southern edges of the Atacama Desert, home of ESO's first observing site. Here ESO operates three major telescopes: the 3.6-metre telescope, the New Technology Telescope and the 2.2-metre Max-Planck-ESO telescope. They are equipped with state-of-the art instruments such as HARPS, the best extrasolar planet finder in the world. The dome in the centre of the image belongs to the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, commissioned in 1977 and completely upgraded in 1999, and to which HARPS is mounted. At the far right of the image is the 15-metre Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST), built in 1987, decommissioned in 2003, and replaced by the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope on the 5100 m Chajnantor plateau.

A kind thank you to Mill House/Fred Kamphues for sharing their source panorama photograph. Wee Planet copyright by Nikki Smith of BookSmithStudio.com; All Rights Reserved. Source photograph copyright Mill House/Fred Kamphues (used with permission via CC-A license).

Uploaded

February 11th, 2014