“desert sky” shows an out-of-this-world landscape fromthe central region of the Atacama Desert in Chile, one of the most arid places on Earth. The desert lies in the rain shadow of Chile’s Coast Range, which squeezes moisture out of the atmosphere and provides a clear sky almost the entire year. The Mars-like landscape is one of the world’s best sites to look into the universe. The picture was taken from the summit of the Cerro Armazones mountain at an altitude of 3,060m. E-ELT, this extraordinary, cutting-edge next generation telescope, will be built on the peak of this mountain. The telescope will have a diameter of 39m, consist of 798 mirror segments and be the largest telescope in the world. After 10 years research to find the best location, construction officially started in June 2014. The aim is to have the E-ELT observatory operational by 2022.

The artwork "desert sky" depicts the vastness and infinitude of this remote place on Earth. An area of some 500 square kilometers around Cerro Armazones has been declared a protected region to avoid any kind of disruption by mining works or light pollution. The little station in the center is an observation station that has long been measuring the moisture in the atmosphere. The picture was taken exactly from the foundation stone of the new telescope – our future window on the universe.