The European Southern Observatory
Published on Aug 4, 2007 at 7:28 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under observatories, wonders.
Created in 1962, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, or as it is better known, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is a an intergovernmental astronomical organization supported by 13 nations. It isn’t really a single observatory, but a collection of observatories. Most of its facilities are in Chile. Many of the world’s astronomers live in the northern hemisphere (Europe or North America, for example), but much of the southern sky can not be observed from far north of the Earth’s equator. Many interesting objects are located in the southern sky, so it is natural that astronomers would want to have large telescopes south of the equator. The United States, for example, operates Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile. But, the European collective that operates ESO operates some very impressive facilities. Many of the telescopes built by ESO have been state of the art instruments pioneering new technologies.
One of the sites used by ESO is the La Silla Observatory, the site of 18 telescopes. La Silla is where the New Technology Telescope, one of the first telescopes with active optics to maintain the shape of its mirror. La Silla is located directly between Cerro Tololo and Las Campanas Observatory (operated by Carnegie Institution). ESO also operates the Paranal Observatory. Paranal has fewer telescopes, but it is home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The VLT is actually four separate 8.2 meter telescopes which can operate independently of one another. However, VLT is special in that the light of those four telescopes can be combined to form an optical interferometer (analogous to the radio interferometer, the VLA, that I had written about earlier). Four smaller telescopes can now also be tied into the VLT.
ESO also operates Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in Chile, which is primarily a radio or very far infrared observatory.
In keeping with ESO’s past of building state of the art ground breaking telescopes, work is under way to design the largest optical telescope ever conceived: The Extremely Large Telescope, which will be a 42 meter telescope if it is built.
-Astroprof
Images courtesy ESO
A Ler…-- Rastos de Luz on August 6, 2007 at 12:40 pm: 1
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