The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is an international astronomical organisation, composed and supported by ten countries from the European Union plus Switzerland. Created in 1962, it is famous for building and operating some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescopes in the world, such as the New Technology Telescope (NTT), which was one of the telescopes which pioneered active optics technology, and more recently the VLT (Very Large Telescope), consisting of 4 8-meter class telescopes. 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... 50 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory. ... The New Technology Telescope, or NTT is a 3. ... Active optics is a relatively new technology for reflecting telescopes. ... The four telescopes of the European Southern Observatory Paranal site. ...

Its numerous observing facilities have made many astronomical discoveries, and produced several astronomical catalogues. Among the more recent are the farthest galaxy ever seen by humans, the Abell 1835 IR1916 galaxy, though this claim seems to be debunked by a series of new articles. In 2005, it obtained the first picture of an exosolar planet, 2M1207b, orbiting a brown dwarf 260 light-years away. An astronomical catalog is a list or tabulation of astronomical objects, typically grouped together because they share a common type, morphology, origin, means of detection, or method of discovery. ... Galaxy Abell 1835 IR1916 is seen as a tiny dot in this photo of distant galaxies. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2M1207b is an extrasolar planet orbiting the brown dwarf 2M1207, a star in the constellation Hydra approximately 200 light years from Earth. ... This brown dwarf (smaller object) orbits the star Gliese 229, which is located in the constellation Lepus about 19 light years from Earth. ...

Facilities

Most of its observation facilities are located in Chile (hence the name "Southern"), and the headquarters are located in Garching near Munich, Germany. ESO operates three major observatories in Chile's Atacama desert: Garching bei München or Garching is a town in Bavaria, Germany near Munich. ... Munich (German: München, (pronounced listen) is the capital of the German Federal State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern). ... MolÄ—tai Astronomical Observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial and/or celestial events. ... The Atacama desert of Chile is a virtually rainless plateau made up of salt basins (salares), sand, and lava flows, extending from the Andes mountains to the Pacific Ocean. ...

• La Silla Observatory
• Paranal Observatory, which includes the Very Large Telescope
• Llano de Chajnantor Observatory, which will host submillimetre telescopess, and is operated in collaboration with organisations in the USA, Canada and Chile. This site will host the Atacama Large Millimeter Array under construction in collaboration with the NSF (USA), the NRC (Canada), and the NAOJ (Japan).

One of the most ambitious ESO projects is the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL). If built, it will be the largest optical telescope in the world. La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with eighteen telescopes. ... The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is an international astronomical organisation, composed and supported by ten countries from the European Union plus Switzerland and was created in 1962. ... One of the four telescopes that make up the VLT, named Kueyen. ... Llano de Chajnantor Observatory is an astronomical observatory located at 5104 m altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert, 50 kilometers to the north of San Pedro de Atacama. ... Submillimetre Astronomy is the branch of observational astronomy that is conducted at submillimetre wavelengths. ... The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is an international astronomy project that consists of a system of radio telescopes in an array formation, located at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. ... The logo of the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. ... -1... National Astronomical Observatory of Japan is an astronomical observatory comprised of several facilities sponsored jointly by the United States and Japan located in both Hawaii and in the Japanese archipelago. ... The Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL) is a conceptual design by the European Southern Observatory organization for a telescope which is intended to have a single aperture of 100 meters in diameter. ... 50 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory. ...

Member countries:

• Belgium
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Spain (Since 1 July 2006. [1])
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

Host Country:

• Chile

Austria is currently in accession negotations. [2]

Instruments at La Silla

Of the eighteen telescopes at La Silla Observatory, three are operated by ESO for use by the ESO astronomical community: La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with eighteen telescopes. ...

2.2m telescope

This telescope is loaned from the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Its instrumentation includes both a spectroscope and a wide-field CCD imager capable of mapping substantial portions of the sky in a single exposure. The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. ... A spectroscope is a device which measures the spectrum of light. ... A specially developed CCD used for ultraviolet imaging in a wire bonded package. ...

3.6m telescope

A conventionally designed horseshoe mount telescope, this is mostly instrumented for infrared spectroscopy. The ESO 3. ... 50 cm refracting telescope at Nice Observatory. ... Image of a small dog taken in mid-infrared (thermal) light (false color) Infrared (IR) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength longer than that of visible light, but shorter than that of radio waves. ... Extremely high resolution spectrum of the Sun showing thousands of elemental absorption lines (fraunhofer lines) Spectroscopy is the study of spectra, that is, the dependence of physical quantities on frequency. ...

New Technology Telescope (NTT)

Although the NTT is almost the same size as the 3.6m telescope, the use of active optics makes it a higher resolution instrument. Also it had, at the time of building, innovative thermal control systems to minimise the telescope and dome seeing. The New Technology Telescope, or NTT is a 3. ...

Instruments at Paranal

The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is the main instrument, composed of four near-identical 8.2 m telescopes. In addition the four main telescopes can combine their light to make a fifth instrument, the VLTI, Very Large Telescope Interferometer. Four auxiliary telescopes of 1.8m each are being added to the VLTI to make it available when the main telescopes are being used for other projects. The first two of these were installed in early 2004 and 2005. One of the four telescopes that make up the VLT, named Kueyen. ... Interferometry is the applied science of combining two or more input points of a particular data type, such as optical measurements, to form a greater picture based on the combination of the two sources. ...

The site also houses the 2.5m VLT Survey Telescope and 4m VISTA survey telescope with wider fields of view for surveying large areas of sky uniformly. The VLT Survey Telescope or VST is a proposed 2. ... VISTA is the Visible & Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, a 4m telescope in development which will be sited at Cerro Paranal in Chile. ...

Instruments at Llano de Chajnantor

APEX radio telescope

• Cosmic Background Imager (CBI)
• Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX)
• Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA)

ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (887x800, 431 KB) Summary Source: http://www. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (887x800, 431 KB) Summary Source: http://www. ... The Cosmic Background Imager (or CBI) is a 13-element interferometer perched at an elevation of 5000 metres at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Chilean Andes. ... APEX radio telescope The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) is a radio telescope located at 5,100 meters above sea level, in the Chanjnantor plateau, in northern Chile, 50 kilometers to the north of San Pedro de Atacama. ... The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is an international astronomy project that consists of a system of radio telescopes in an array formation, located at Llano de Chajnantor Observatory in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. ...

External links

• ESO: http://www.eso.org
• Paranal Observatory
• Webpage for the ESO telescopes at La Silla Observatory