The European Southern Observatory is an agency that governs some of the best telescopes on the planet, and they just added a new eye on the sky: the Very Large Survey Telescope (VST), a 2.6 meter ‘scope in Chile. There are lots of telescopes of similar size dotting our planet, but what makes this one special is its huge field of view — a solid one degree across, twice the diameter of the Moon on the sky – and the resolution of the camera: a terrifying 268 megapixels!
When you put that together, you get some dazzling pictures, like this one of the globular cluster Omega Centauri:
[Click to englobulenate to a 4000 x 4000 pixel 13 MB image, or grab yourself the internet-choking 14,540 x 14,540 pixel 280 MB version.]
Omega Cen is one of the largest globular clusters of the 150 or so orbiting the Milky Way galaxy, a collection of hundreds of thousands or even millions of star all orbiting the cluster center willy-nilly like bees swarming around a hive. Telescopes like the VST will allow astronomers to survey these clusters quickly and deeply, which is important because ...
![14,540 x 14,540 pixel 280 MB version.]](http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/large/eso1119b.jpg){kind=link}