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title="Austria" alt="Austria" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/belgium/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/belgium.gif" title="Belgium" alt="Belgium" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/czechrepublic/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/czechrepublic.gif" title="Czech Republic" alt="Czech Republic" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/denmark/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/denmark.gif" title="Denmark" alt="Denmark" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/finland/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/finland.gif" title="Finland" alt="Finland" border="0" width="26" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/france/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/france.gif" title="France" alt="France" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/germany/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/germany.gif" title="Germany" alt="Germany" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/ireland/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/ireland.gif" title="Ireland" alt="Ireland" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/italy/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/italy.gif" title="Italy" alt="Italy" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/sep1.gif" width="4"/><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/public/netherlands/?lang"><img class="nopadding" src="/web/20210303033142im_/http://www.eso.org/i/netherlands.gif" title="Netherlands" alt="Netherlands" border="0" width="24" height="16"/></a> <img 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href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities.html">Observing Facilities</a> </div> <div id="navdate"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/https://www.eso.org/public/events/special-evt/" title="Calendar"> 03 Mar 2021</a></div> </div>  </div> <a class="skip" href="#navigation" title="jump to navigation">jump to navigation</a> <a class="skip" href="#content" title="jump to content ">jump to content</a><div id="outer_wrapper">  <div id="main">  <div id="col1"> <div id="col1_content" class="clearfix"> <div class="leftnavi navigation">  <div class="smenu"><a id="navigation" name="navigation"></a> <ul id="leftmenu"> <li class="title"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci.html">Science Users Information</a></li> <li> <ul id="leftnav"> <li class="curr0"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities.html">Observing Facilities</a><ul class="sub1"> <li class="std1"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lpo.html">La Silla Paranal Observatory</a><ul class="sub2"> <li class="std2"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lpo/safety.html">Safety Information</a></li> <li class="std2"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lpo/cfp/cfp108.html">Call for Proposals</a></li> <li class="std2"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lpo/news.html">News</a></li> <li class="std2"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lpo/contact.html">Contact Information</a></li> <li class="std2"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal.html">Paranal Facilities</a></li> <li class="std2"><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lasilla.html">La Silla Facilities</a></li> <li class="std2"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://www.apex-telescope.org/">APEX</a></li> <li class="std2"><a 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name="content"></a> <div id="col3"> <div id="col3_content" class="clearfix"> <div class="subcolumns"> <div class="par parsys"><div class="title section"> <h1>ESO Observing Facilities</h1> </div> <div class="richtext text parbase section"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/web/20210303033142cs_/http://www.eso.org/etc/clientlibs/wcm/foundation/accessibility.css" type="text/css"/> <p>As set out in its convention, ESO provides state of the art facilities for Europe's astronomers and promotes and organises cooperation in astronomical research. Today, ESO operates the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lpo/">La Silla Paranal Observatory</a>, providing some of the world's largest and most advanced observational facilities at three sites in Northern Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. These are the best locations known in the southern hemisphere for astronomical observations.</p> <h2>NEWS</h2> <p>Please check the following news links:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lpo/news/">La Silla Paranal Observatory News</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/develop.html">News on ESO Instrumentation</a></li> </ul> <p> </p> <hr> <h2>Paranal</h2> <p>The Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal is ESO's premier site for observations in the visible and infrared light. All four unit telescopes of 8.2-m diameter are individually in operation with a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/">large collection of instruments</a>.</p> <p>The VLT offers also the possibility of combining coherently the light from the four UTs to work as an interferometer. The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), with its own suite of instruments, ultimately providing imagery at the milli arcsecond level as well as astrometry at 10 micro arcsecond precision. In addition to the 8.2m diameter telescopes the VLTI is complemented with four Auxiliary Telescopes (AT) of 1.8m diameter to improve its imaging capabilities and enable full nighttime use on a year-round basis.</p> <h2>La Silla</h2> <p>ESO operates two major telescopes (3.6m telescope, New Technology Telescope (NTT)) at La Silla. They are equipped with <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lasilla/instruments/">state of the art instruments</a> either built completely by ESO or by external consortia, with substantial contribution by ESO.</p> <h2>APEX</h2> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://www.apex-telescope.org/">APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment</a>, is a collaboration between Max Planck Institut f眉r Radioastronomie (MPIfR) at 50%, Onsala Space Observatory (OSO) at 23%, and ESO at 27% to construct and operate a modified ALMA prototype antenna as a single dish on the high altitude site of Llano Chajnantor. The telescope was supplied by VERTEX Antennentechnik in Duisburg, Germany.</p> <h2>ALMA</h2> <p>The ALMA project is an international collaboration between Europe, East Asia and North America in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. It is coordinated and operated by the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://www.almaobservatory.org/">Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO)</a> in Chile on behalf of the three executives. The European executive is represented by ESO, which also hosts the <a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/alma/arc.html">European ALMA Regional Centre</a>. The other partners North America and East Asia are represented by <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://science.nrao.edu/alma/index.shtml">NRAO</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://alma.mtk.nao.ac.jp/e/">NAOJ</a> respectively.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>  <div class="footer">  <div id="footer"> <div id="footerupdate"> <table> <tbody> <tr> <th>Last Update: 27.05.16 © ESO</th> <td><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/mailto:webeditor@eso.org"> Send us your comments</a> | <a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/enews.html">Subscribe to Newsletter</a> | <a href="/web/20210303033142/http://www.eso.org/sci/privacy.html">Privacy Statement</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> </div>  </div> </div>  </div>   <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//web.archive.org/web/20210303033142/http://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-1965004-1', 'auto'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script>   <script type="text/javascript"> var _paq = _paq || []; /* tracker methods like "setCustomDimension" should be called before "trackPageView" */ _paq.push(['trackPageView']); _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); (function() { var u="/mtmo/"; _paq.push(['setTrackerUrl', u+'piwik.php']); _paq.push(['setSiteId', '1']); var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; g.type='text/javascript'; g.async=true; g.defer=true; g.src=u+'piwik.js'; s.parentNode.insertBefore(g,s); })(); </script>  </body> </html>