but now hubble has competition from telescopes back on earth the european southern observatory's powerful very large telescope is based in the mars like landscape of harsh atacama desert at 2600 meters above sea level and a region with largely cloudless skies the observatory is ideal for ground based astronomy but. it's a very unique environment working in the humanity is often in single digits under 10 percent if you spent the whole day outside more or less die of dehydration simply by exhaling. in this hostile environment far from civilization astronomers and technicians are housed in their residency at a hotel created exclusively for science and research. the pool is not really a luxury rather it's intended to provide bearable humidity levels inside the building at night the buildings don't miss trout it to prevent any light from disturbing the highly sensitive telescopes that work. moonless nights in the arctic comic desert are so dark that the light of the milky way casts its own shadow. now the giant telescopes with 8 metre wide mirrors are being readied for observation. astronomers