Huge advances in technical innovations have seen astronomers able to collect more and more light from the skies, through bigger and more advanced telescopes, to see deeper into the Universe – than has ever been seen before. This has been possible through collaborations across nations and disciplines.Simply called the Extremely Large Telescope – the ELT, which is currently in construction will be the largest and most powerful visible and infrared light telescope in the world. At a size of twice the length of a cricket pitch, if it were placed at Land’s End, it would be able to see a bumblebee at John O’Groats! By the late 2020s it will be delivering major breakthroughs in astronomy – observing the formation of distant galaxies and characterising planets around nearby stars with unique precision.The ELT is being built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) at the Paranal Observatory on the Armazones Mountain in Northern Chile. Its scale makes it a feat of engineering, and its ambition makes it a feat of imagination. But building and designing the ELT is no small task; involving many teams around the world.