ESO - European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere
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www.eso.org |
ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the
Southern Hemisphere, is an intergovernmental European organisation
that was created in 1962 to . . . "establish and operate an
astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere, equipped with
powerful instruments, with the aim of furthering and organizing
collaboration in astronomy..." ESO is supported by thirteen countries:
Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It is expected
that others will join during the coming years.
ESO operates observational facilities at three sites. It runs the
world's prime optical/infrared astronomical facility, the Very Large
Telescope Array (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory. Located
approximately 130 km south of Antofagasta, this 2,600 m high mountain
is in the driest part of the Atacama desert. The VLT consists of four
8.2-m and four 1.8-m telescopes, some of which can be used in
combination as a unique, giant interferometer (VLTI).
"First Light" of the first 8.2-m telescope (UT1) occurred in May 1998
and all four giant telescopes are in operation since 2001. In
addition, ESO operates the La Silla observatory in the Atacama
desert, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile, at 2,400 m altitude, where
state-of-the-art medium-sized telescopes are in operation. At
Chajnantor, at 5100m altitude, ESO is also operating APEX, a 12-m
antenna operating in the sub-millimetre domain.
More than 1,700 proposals are made each year for the use of the ESO
telescopes, which contribute yearly to more than 650 scientific
publications.
The ESO Headquarters are located in Garching, near Munich, Germany.
This is the scientific, technical and administrative centre of ESO
where technical development programmes are carried out to provide the
La Silla and Paranal observatories with the most advanced
instruments. There are also extensive astronomical data facilities.
ESO has a total staff of about 600.
ESO is currently engaged in a major new project for the construction
of 50 12-m telescopes for observation in the mm/sub-mm wavelength
domain. Known as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), this is a
joint project with the United States of America, Canada, Japan,
Taiwan, and Spain.
Furthermore, conceptual studies for an extremely large telescope, in
the 30 to 60m range, are being undertaken by ESO.