In a rare and stunning weather event, residents of northern Chile’s Atacama Desert — the driest desert on Earth — woke up Thursday to find their arid surroundings covered in snow.

With a resolution above 3.2 gigapixels, a nearly three-ton weight and the ambitious task of carrying out an unprecedented decade-long exploration, the largest digital camera ever built for optical astronomy is ready to be installed under the clear skies of northern Chile, News.Az reports citing Reuters.