© ESOUp close to the Moon
Observing our natural satellite through a telescope as large as the European
Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope is truly a monumental
experience. Astronomers located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile got
the chance to enjoy this unique opportunity when the Visible Multi-Object
Spectrograph, VIMOS for short, was decommissioned to make way for the
so-called UT3 telescope – one of the VLT’s four Unit Telescopes – for the upcoming
CRyogenic InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph Upgrade Project (CRIRES+).
Astronomers could have turned UT3 to deep space, focusing on a far-flung
galaxy or a planet in the Solar System. Instead though, they decided to look
much closer to home at the cratered surface of our natural satellite. The exquisite
image was created by the twilight Moon being projected onto a semi-transparent
screen, resulting in a delicate and detailed display of the myriad craters and cracks
scattered across its surface.