Roque de los Muchachos Observatory.

Above the clouds, atop an island off the coast of Africa, a group of cutting-edge telescopes inspects the universe. Pictured above are telescopes at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma , one of the [Canary Islands](http://www.fotw.ca/flags/es(ic.html) , Spain . The site is one of the premier observing locations on Earth. The telescopes pictured are, from left to right, the Carlsberg Meridian Telescope , the 4.2-meter William Herschel Telescope , the Dutch Open Telescope , the Swedish Solar Tower , the 2.5-meter Isaac Newton Telescope , and the 1.0-meter Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope . Pioneering observations made recently by these telescopes include stars and galaxies forming early in our universe, comets breaking up , and evidence for planets around Sun-like stars.