Telescope Trio

The gleaming dome of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope is flanked by two telescopes of the SMARTS Consortium in this image from Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Above the telescopes, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — two satellite galaxies that are neighbors to the Milky Way — hang over the scene. The starry band of the Milky Way itself streaks across the left hand side of the image, complete with dark lanes of dust.

The vibrant colors of the night sky are due to the faint hues of airglow and the first hints of dawn. As well as tinting the night sky, the long exposure of this image and the rotation of the Earth have caused very small star trails to form. If you look closely at the upper corners of this image, you can spot the tell-tale streaks of long-exposure astrophotography.