| Term: | Very Large Telescope |
| Definition: |
An observing facility consisting of four 8.2 m telescopes, with the combined collecting area of a 16 m mirror, owned and operated by the European Southern Observatory at an altitude of 2635 m at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The four reflecting unit telescopes are called Antu 'Sun' in the language of Chile's indigenous Mapuche people, Kueyen 'Moon,' Melipal 'Southern Cross,' and Yepun 'Venus.' Each unit is equipped with several sophisticated instruments. The light of the individual telescopes can be combined using interferometric techniques to achieve superior resolution. The wavelength range covered by the VLT is extremely wide, ranging from deep ultraviolet to mid-infrared. |