The largest telescope that will ever be built*

The asterisk is important. ■ AD: 👨‍💻 NordVPN’s best deal is here: https://nordvpn.com/tomscott – with a 30-day money-back guarantee. ■ More on the ELT: @ESOobservatory https://eso.org

The Extremely Large Telescope, in Paranal, Chile, is probably going to be the largest optical telescope that will ever be constructed. I was invited out there by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council and the European Southern Observatory, and I wasn’t going to turn down a chance like that.

📰 DISCLAIMER
While the STFC and ESO invited me and arranged the logistics after arrival into the Antofagasta region, I was not paid for this (not even my travel costs) and I have sole editorial control over the video. This is not an advert.

👥 CREDITS
Editor: Michelle Martin https://www.youtube.com/@OnTheCrux
Script assistant: Laura Conlon
Audio mix: Graham Haerther and Manni Simon at Standard Studios

Thanks to Alex Fyans, Hannah Conduit, and William Taylor from STFC; to Francisco Rodríguez, Juan Carlos, and Michele Cirasuolo from ESO; and to everyone I met at Paranal!

🖼 IMAGE CREDITS
Images and footage from ESO is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://www.eso.org/public/outreach/copyright/

First image of an explanet: https://www.eso.org/public/images/26a_big-vlt/
Stars orbiting the supermassive black hole: https://www.eso.org/public/australia/videos/eso1825e/
VLT light path: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/LightPath-VLT2021/
VLTI delay lines: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/esocast13/
ELT render: https://www.eso.org/public/images/elt-fulldome-1_cc/

📽 PREVIOUS VIDEOS
Previously, in Arecibo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3WiRunOsWY
and in Parkes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o38C-ultvw

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Written by Tom Scott