This is a picture of the sky above the Very Large Telescopes (VLT). This facility is for European ground-based astronomy. They have the world's most advanced optical instrument, with the the four Unit Telescopes to form the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer. This allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes. This panoramic image in Chile, allows us to see many things. One of these diagonal bands of light to the far left is called zodiacal light. It comes from the sunlight reflected off of dust orbiting in the inner solar system. If you scroll your mouse over the image the different objects in the sky are identified and labeled. This was also taken during the total lunar eclipse last December so the moon actually appears orange. I am actually familiar with the constellations Canis Major and Orion, which appear in this photo. But with all the other stars in the sky it makes it harder to find them.
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