作者：全景再现科技 标题：日落前的景色

简介： A VISTA before sunset。ESO’s Paranal Observatory — located in Chile’s Atacama region — is most well known for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), ESO’s flagship telescope facility. However, over the last few years, the site has also become home to two state-of-the-art survey telescopes. These new members of the Paranal family are designed to image large areas of the sky quickly and deeply. One of them, the 4.1-metre Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), is located on a neighbouring peak not far from the Paranal summit. It is shown in this beautiful photograph taken from Paranal by ESO Photo Ambassador, Babak Tafreshi. VISTA is the world’s largest survey telescope, and has been operating since December 2009. At the lower right corner of the image, VISTA’s enclosure appears in front of a seemingly endless mountain range, which stretches to the horizon. As sunset approaches, the mountains cast longer shadows, which slowly cover the brownish tones that colour the magnificent landscape that surrounds Paranal. Soon, the Sun will drop below the horizon, and all the telescopes at Paranal will start another night of observations. VISTA is a wide-field telescope, designed to map the southern sky in infrared light with high sensitivity, allowing astronomers to detect extremely faint objects. The goal of these surveys is to create large catalogues of celestial objects for statistical studies and to identify new targets that can be studied in more detail by the VLT. Links More about the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) ESO Photo Ambassadors ESO的巴拉那天文台位于智利阿塔卡马地区，以ESO的旗舰望远镜设施甚大望远镜（VLT）而闻名。然而，在过去的几年里，该地点也成为了两台最先进的观测望远镜的所在地。这些巴拉那家族的新成员被设计成快速而深入地拍摄天空的大片区域。其中一个是4.1米的可见光和红外天文学观测望远镜（VISTA），它位于离巴拉那峰不远的一座山峰上。这张美丽的照片是ESO照片大使巴巴克·塔弗雷西在巴拉那拍摄的。VISTA是世界上最大的观测望远镜，自2009年12月开始运行。在图像的右下角，VISTA的围墙出现在一条似乎无边无际的山脉前，山脉一直延伸到地平线。随着日落的临近，群山投下了更长的阴影，慢慢地覆盖了褐色的色调，为巴拉那周围壮丽的景观增添了色彩。不久，太阳将落到地平线以下，巴拉那的所有望远镜将开始另一个夜晚的观测。VISTA是一台宽视场望远镜，设计用于以高灵敏度的红外光绘制南方天空，使天文学家能够探测到极微弱的物体。这些调查的目的是建立大型天体目录，用于统计研究，并确定VLT可以更详细研究的新目标。有关天文可见和红外观测望远镜（VISTA）ESO照片大使的更多链接