The European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory is located in the Atacama Desert of Chile, 2635 metres (8645 feet) above sea level. Courtesy Joseph Anderson, Head of the Office for Science in Chile and ESO Chile Faculty Chair, I have been fortunate to visit the Paranal Observatory on two occasions.

For ‘James Bond’ fans, the Residencia, where we stayed, was the filmed location of the finale of the Quantum of Solace (with Daniel Craig, 2008). 

The observatory contains four main 8.2-meter telescopes and four smaller movable telescopes that can work together to achieve extremely high resolution, allowing the universe to be studied in visible and infrared light.