8 Telescopes in action at Paranal observatory,
3D night time lapse movie 

This time lapse movie shows a complete night at Paranal Observatory , in the Atacama desert (Chile). You can see the four 8m telescopes and the four 1.8m telescopes of the Very Large Telescope working during the same night. This time lapse is rather 'rare' for two reasons. First because it was made in '3D' using two cameras taking pictures simultaneously in order to recombine them into an anaglyph time lapse movie. And second, because some clouds appeared during the night, which is rather uncommon at Paranal, and added a 'plus' on this 3D movie. The telescopes and domes were lit by the moonlight. Note that the ISS (International Space Station) crosses the sky during the very first seconds of the movie.

You will need Red/Cyan anaglyph lenses to view this movie in 3D. You can purchase several for a few Dollars/Euros on the internet or try and make some with transparent colored plastic sheets (just make sure your 'red' side does not see part the cyan part of the image and vice-versa). Alternatively, in order to view this movie without any special lenses, I have mounted the two movies 'side by side' here.


The following 'side by side' version of the movie can be watched in 3D if you know how to 'separate' the focusing and vergence control of your eyes. I do personally prefer to use a piece of cardboard as shown here to make this viewing easier, each eye seeing then only one movie at a time ... just wait for your brain to 'merge' the two views in a single 3D view. This can only works if the distance between the center of the two movies on your screen is not bigger than your eyes separation, ie less than 60-65mm (otherwise you would need to make your eyes-axis to diverge ... this is normally not possible or painful).. I have sized the movie so that this happens on the different screens I have used.





Tip to see the side by side 3D movie easily with a simple cardboard.