An Astronomical Success Story: The La Silla Observatory

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ESOcast 5: An Astronomical Success Story - ESO's First Observatory Celebrates 40th Anniversary.

ESO's La Silla Observatory, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, became the largest astronomical observatory of its time. It led Europe to the frontline of astronomical research, and is still one of the most scientifically productive in ground-based astronomy.

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La Silla is a 2400-m mountain, bordering the southern extremity of the Atacama desert in Chile. It is located about 160 Km north of La Serena.

Originally known as Cinchado, the mountain was renamed La Silla (the saddle) after its shape. It rises quite isolated and remote from any artificial light and dust sources (astronomy's worst enemies). La Silla was the first ESO observatory built in Chile. Its history is full of optimism and disappointments, ups and downs, since its beginnings in the 50's until the middle of the 70's when the observatory became a reality.

http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lasilla/site/aboutls.html

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La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with eighteen telescopes. Nine of these telescopes were built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) organisation, and several of the others are partly maintained by ESO. The observatory is one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.

La Silla is a 2400 m high mountain, bordering the southern extremity of the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is located about 160 km north of La Serena, 27 km south of Las Campanas Observatory, and 100 km north of Cerro Tololo Observatory. It rises quite isolated and remote from any artificial light and dust sources. La Silla was the first observatory in Chile used by ESO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Silla_Observatory
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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• la
• silla
• observatories
• eso
• chile
• atacama
• desert
• telescopes
• astronomy
• european
• space
• anniversary
• science
• universe
• esocast 5

[TheRationalizer]

@XraklingX If Europe design, fund, build, and run something in Africa I'd say it is European.

[Timmay123456789]

ohhhhhh fuck off

[directorygod]

Cool, Thanks for shared..!!

[bde12000]

@TheRationalizer not in southamerica and even in Chile but in Africa it can be a European project

[patrickledford420]

@b29349 lol unless you dont beleive than your a worthless piece of shit right? and he is so great he can use evil for good? WTF!!! if hes that great then why the fuck couldnt he just uhhhh lets say use good to make more good. you, sir, are a complete incompotent jackass

[patrickledford420]

@b29349 lol so he made rapist with there own purpose and atheist right? if so then why do we have to repent if it was our purpose

[MegaAtheistman]

what a load of shite! God does not exist or he is a assole. Its one or the other. No loving god would create a world like this.

[MegaAtheistman]

@ b29349.... then why does god kill babies?

[b29349]

No. All people die at some time.

[b29349]

The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. God's strategy in history, then, involves maneuvering unwanted evil to his good ends. "This is not to say that he wills evil himself, or even that he willingly allows it, but such is his greatness that he can use it for good. God does not directly determine everything that happens and his glory lies partly in the fact that he triumphs in spite of this.

[MegaAtheistman]

@b29349 man made artificial limbs not god... thats so lame. We have to do that god can't. Which is everything because there is no god and is why your answer is so incredibly weak. We cure cancer, we fix hearts, we save people under the rubble of an earthquake, we send aid to victims of natural catastrophes, we stop criminals, we fix teeth, we cure diseases, we put out forest fires, we save ourselves whenever possible while God stands by and does absolutely nothing! Not a single thing does he do.

[MegaAtheistman]

@b29349 so a baby is bad when god kills it in an earthquake?