Cerro Paranal is a mountain in the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

of northern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and is the home of the

Paranal Observatory Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is located in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at altitude, south of Antofagasta. By total light-collecting area, ...

. Prior to the construction of the observatory, the summit was a horizontal control point with an elevation of ; now it is above sea level. It is the site of the

Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with ...

and the VLT Survey Telescope. It is located south of

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. Once claimed by Bolivia follo ...

and north of Taltal, as well as inland and west of highway B-710.

Gallery

Up high Cerro Paranal.jpg, Milky Way pictured above Cerro Paranal Zodiacal Light Seen from Paranal.jpg, Zodiacal Light seen from Paranal

References

External links

Cerro Paranal
Paranal {{Chile-mountain-stub