La Silla Facilities
La Silla, in the southern part of the Atacama desert, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile and at an altitude of 2400 metres is the home of ESO's original observing site.
Here ESO operates two major telescopes: the 3.6m telescope, and the New Technology Telescope (NTT). They are equipped with state of the art instruments either built completely by ESO or by external consortia, with substantial contribution by ESO.
La Silla Observatory is hosting regularly Visitor Instruments that are attached to a telescope, for the duration of a run of observation and then is removed from the telescope.
La Silla also hosts national telescopes, such as the 2.2-m Max-Planck telescope, 1.2-m Swiss Telescope and the 1.5-m Danish Telescope.
On February 27, 2014, a call for ideas for the NTT has been opened, see the announcement here. The deadline is March 31, 2014.
In Case of Emergency
Quick Links
- La Silla Paranal Observatory
- La Silla Wiki
- Paranal Facilities
- APEX
- Visitor Guidelines
- Visitor Instrument
- End of Mission Report
- EFOSC2 Setup Form
Contact Information
Visiting the Observatory
- Please read the details about Visiting the La Silla Paranal Observatory sites
- Read more about La Silla and its History