| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
ESOcast 59: Chile Chill 4
Our new ESOcast — Chile Chill 4 — explores the wealth of stunning astronomical images produced over a period of almost 30 years by the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.
Up until this year the telescope has been operated by ESO and made available to the ESO community, as well as users from the Max Planck Society (MPG). In future ESO will no longer offer the telescope to its users, although the Max Planck Society will continue to use it.
The telescope had an interesting early history. It was originally constructed by the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (Heidelberg, Germany) and intended to be sited in Namibia. It was not installed there and later offered to ESO under an agreement where ESO undertook the installation of the telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile and managed its subsequent operation. The telescope was made operational in record time under the project management of Massimo Tarenghi during 1983 and has had a distinguished career since. The MPG retained a 25% share in the observing time.
As well as its current instrumentation: the WFI camera, the FEROS spectrograph and the GROND gamma-ray burst system, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope was also the host of the first common-user infrared camera offered by ESO, the IRAC system, which was installed in 1988.
We have made our own tribute to this telescope’s remarkable legacy by taking a tour through some of our favourite images, taken during its long history of service.
To watch Chile Chill 4 — a review of the images of the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope — follow the link to ESOcast 59.
More Information
The ESOcast is a video podcast series dedicated to bringing you the latest news and research from ESO — the European Southern Observatory.
Subscribe to our video podcast now to keep up with the latest news from ESO: the ESOcast is available via iTunes in HD and SD. It’s also available on YouTube, Vimeo and dotSUB and is offered for download in several formats including HD.
Courtesy of European Southern Observatory
Source: http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann13063/
