re: I'm afraid...
It's been a while since astronomers are not looking through their large telescope anymore!
Even amateur astronomers will soon enough buy telescopes with integrated CCD chips, GPS, Goto systems and will even have a screen and no more viewfinder...I'm afraid:-(
Cameras send the pictures to screens and screens can be located halfway around the world. Most of the VLT astronomers have their offices at Garching in Germany.
I have a friend who works there and she's been to Chile at the VLT but it's not where she goes most of the time.
Raoul