Shooting the dark Universe with THE WORLD'S BIGGEST CAMERA

Janie Carter reports _ from the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile, where the largest camera ever built will soon start shooting the ultimate space movie: an ultra-wide, ultrahigh-definition record of the southern sky

- Janie Carter

Chile's Elqui Valley hides a secret door to the stars. A narrow highway heads east through the region's fertile carpet of green dedicated to producing grapes for both wine and Chile's famous Pisco brandy. I found myself making my way along a dirt road beside one of the region's many vineyards.

After using the proper paperwork to pass through the checkpoint, I traveled along 20 miles of mountain passes to the summit of Cerro Pachón. Here is the Gabriela Mistral Dark Sky Sanctuary, which numbers among the darkest and driest places on Earth.

On a mountain ridge 2,700m above sea level is the new home to one of astronomy's most important new facilities, the Vera C Rubin Observatory. It's been taking shape here since 2015 and, from next year, is set to change astronomy forever.

Rubin Observatory is not alone on the mountainside. A few miles before the ridge is a turn-off to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, while just beyond it is the 8.1-metre (26.5ft) Gemini South telescope. Beyond that, the 4.1-metre (13.4ft) SOAR (Southern Astrophysical Research) telescope. It's a breathtaking place to be - in more ways than one, thanks to the thin air at such altitude. Even getting out of the car too quickly was enough to make me dizzy. Like another recent arrival, I'd come to take a look around. But while I was here to explore the observatory, this new addition will be the one taking in the night sky above.

Camera as big as a car

In late May this year, the world's largest camera arrived at the Rubin Observatory. The camera has taken a decade to build at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, California. It's about the size of a car and cost $168 million (£132 million), funded by the US Department of Energy's Office of Science.