# Paranal

*Observatory*

ESO Paranal Observatory, Very Large Telescope

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Where it is | 24.6300° S, 70.4000° W |
| State | CL |
| What is done there | optical observatory |
| Main mirror | 8.2 m |
| Still working | yes |

Test ranges, observatories and ground stations are a hand-picked list kept in this project rather than a published catalogue: no catalogue answers which of the world's thousands of observing sites belong on a map of it. The article below is what lets the choice be argued with.

## What it is

Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is located in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at 2,635 m (8,645 ft) altitude, 120 km (70 mi) south of Antofagasta.

## Elsewhere

- This place on the live map: https://www.orbitalmap.space/?at=-24.63,-70.40
- The article this row is vouched by: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranal_Observatory
- Every object: https://www.orbitalmap.space/o/
- What this site is and what it reads: https://www.orbitalmap.space/llms.txt

## Where this came from

Compiled 2026-09-17. Selected by hand for this project. Description from Wikipedia (en). Description: CC BY-SA 4.0.