A French company has built a huge reflector telescope to enable Europeans to study the galaxy from a mountain in Chile.

The firm, Creusot-Loire, has dug a deep hole in one of its factory workshops to accommodate the 18-metre (54 feet) structure, which was commissioned by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

The E.S.O., which is made up of scientists from six European countries, ordered the telescope to observe the southern skies. These have mainly been ignored by astronomers, whose studies have traditionally been confined mainly to the Northern Hemisphere.

The telescope will be transported to Chile next year and erected on a mountain in the Atacama Desert called La Silla. This is some 600 kilometres (260 miles) north of Santiago.

There, the telescope will eventually be able to observe the galaxy from 2,400 metres (7,800 feet) through clear skies. On the mountain, free from industrial pollution and interference from sources of artificial light the telescope will join others installed there by E.S.O. since 1965.