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The La Silla Observatory — from Inauguration to the Future Held at Universidad De La Serena, Chile, 25–29 March 2019

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The La Silla Observatory — from Inauguration to the Future Held at Universidad De La Serena, Chile, 25–29 March 2019 Astronomical News DOI: 10.18727/0722-6691/5192 Report on the ESO Workshop The La Silla Observatory — From Inauguration to the Future held at Universidad de La Serena, Chile, 25–29 March 2019 Ivo Saviane 1 gigantic steps over La Silla’s history, from History Bruno Leibundgut 1 single- pixel detectors to the large arrays Linda Schmidtobreick 1 in use today. La Silla also experienced The workshop opened with welcome the transition from photographic plates addresses by the Rector of Universidad and simple electronic detectors to de La Serena (ULS) Nibaldo Avilés 1 ESO charge-coupled devices (CCDs) and Pizarro, by Mayor of the Higuera munici- today’s infrared arrays. La Silla also pality Yerko Galleguillos, and by President hosted the first large submillimetre dish in of the ESO Council Willy Benz. Also in This five-day workshop celebrated the the southern hemisphere. Different attendance were Vice-Dean of Research achievements of ESO’s first observa- operational schemes were tested at La and Development of ULS Eduardo Notte, tory, La Silla, on the occasion of its 50th Silla; some new adventures in running and Director of Research and Develop- anniversary. La Silla, officially inaugu- observatories included remote observing ment of ULS Sergio Torres. rated on 25 March 1969, was the culmi- with the NTT and the Coudé Auxiliary nation of the vision of European astron- Telescope (CAT), and The historical context of astronomical omers to create a major observatory in the introduction of service observing at observatories in Chile was given by the southern hemisphere. In the follow- the NT T. Bárbara Silva from the Pontificia ing decades, La Silla served as a test- Universidad Católica de Chile. The earli- bed enabling the development of scien- The workshop celebrated the scientific, est astronomical site explorations by US tific, technical and operational expertise technological, operational and societal astronomers were carried out around the in the European astronomical commu- achievements over the past half century end of the 19th and the beginning of the nity, establishing communication — and charted the possible futures of 20th centuries and identified the Atacama channels with the public at large, and 4-metre-class telescopes in the era of Desert around Copiapó and north of working to increase interaction and col- extremely large telescopes. Many work- La Serena as potentially excellent laboration with the host country Chile shop participants had personally experi- sites for nighttime observations. The as well as with other astronomical facili- enced and participated in the history of International Geophysical Year in 1958 ties in the Andes mountains. Today, the La Silla Observatory. Their reports brought the Chilean sites to the attention La Silla continues to serve as a superb reminisced on the remarkable changes in of American astronomers again and site site hosting the ESO 3.6-metre and our understanding of the Universe, galax- explorations by Jürgen Stock — originally NTT telescopes, as well as a number of ies, stars and planets. At the same time, for the University of Chicago and later for community-led experiments. the workshop also attracted many young the Association of Universities for people who presented newer results and Research in Astronomy (AURA) — identi- their visions for possible future uses of fied mountains around Vicuña as possible Introduction the La Silla telescopes. observatory sites. After the US National Science Foundation selected Cerro La Silla was the main observational The workshop took place in the special Tololo as their southern station, ESO also resource of European astronomers in the auditorium called El Pentagono on the became interested (through Stock’s for- southern hemisphere for the first three campus of the Universidad La Serena mer advisor Otto Heckmann, then ESO decades of ESO’s existence. The (ULS). The site overlooks the city of Director General). This was a rather observatory’s many telescopes, with a La Serena and the bay of Coquimbo, abrupt change from the original plan to range of different apertures, provided the which offered a spectacular setting for place the ESO observatory in southern tools to drive many discoveries. La Silla the workshop. The conference dinner Africa. Within a few years the La Silla was also the testbed for innovations in was at La Silla and included a tour of the mountain was selected and developed. telescope and instrument technology. observatory. Silva finished her presentation by display- The 2.2-metre Max-Planck-Gesellschaft ing a stamp showing the ESO 1-metre (MPG) telescope with its simple dome telescope, which was issued by the Chil- and, of course, the many new features Workshop overview ean Postal Office in 1973. implemented in the New Technology Telescope (NTT) in 1989 were critical for The workshop programme was built The relationship between Chile and ESO ESO’s path towards the Very Large around five topics: history, science, was explored by Claudio Melo, stressing Telescope (VLT). Many new instrument hosted projects, the future, and contrib- the friendly spirit that has guided this concepts were brought to the La Silla uted talks1. These topics were inter- relationship over the years. Chilean telescopes. The focal reducer spersed throughout the workshop so that astronomy has expanded tremendously spectrograph was first introduced with every day covered several aspects. over the past few decades and has made the ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Hosted Projects — formerly called the country one of the leading nations in Camera (EFOSC) instruments and it was “National Telescopes” — are telescopes astronomical research. copied with the FOcal Reducer/low- and experiments installed on La Silla that dispersion Spectrograph (FORS) are operated by universities or consortia. Relations between the various observato- instrument on the VLT and at many other ries in Chile were described by Mario observatories. Infrared instruments made Hamuy and Leopoldo Infante. Hamuy has 36 The Messenger 179 – Quarter 1 | 2020 worked extensively at the Cerro Tololo of the Magellanic Clouds, the identifica- instruments were maintained and Inter-American Observatory and is a pro- tion of quasar absorbing systems as gal- improved over the years — a critical part fessor at the Universidad de Chile. A axies and the observation of ultra- of the successful operations. An inside leader of a Chilean Millenium project, he luminous galaxies. A bibliometric analysis view of the construction of the NTT was was recently head of the Chilean science for results published after 1996, when the given by Sergio Lopriore, who was the foundation (Comisión Nacional de ESO bibliographic records are complete, project engineer at the time, followed by Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, lists nearly 6680 published papers based Jason Spyromilio who recounted stories CONICYT), and as of October 2019 he is on data from La Silla telescopes until of the NTT Big Bang, bringing the NTT up the representative of the Association of 2018. Among the top results are the dis- to VLT standards. A further legacy of Universities for Research in Astronomy covery of the accelerated expansion of La Silla is the provision of new technolo- (AURA) in Chile. Leopoldo Infante is the the Universe, the discovery of the pecu- gies and Cesare Barbieri charted the director of the Las Campanas Observa- liar gamma-ray burst GRB 980425/ path from the NTT to the Telescopio tory. They stressed the friendly competi- SN 1998bw, the survey of G dwarf stars Nazionale Galileo (TNG) on La Palma. tion between the observatories, but also to map the solar neighbourhood, tracing Dietrich Baade reported on the impact of the assistance they have provided each the nature of the Galactic centre via the remote observing with the NTT, the 2.2- other, for example, the loan of the first orbits of stars, the connection between metre MPG telescope and the Coudé CCD detector from Cerro Tololo to host-star metallicity and the probability of Auxiliary Telescope (CAT). La Silla. hosting a planet, the high fraction of bina- rity among massive stars, and chemical Instrumentation development for La Silla The friendly challenge of the “observatory trends in stars in the thin and thick discs. underwent a long and arduous path. olympics” is held every few years, featur- Originally, many instruments followed ing competitions in various sports. Doug The historical development of the ESO American developments — in some Geisler reminded the audience of the joint telescopes was presented by Massimo cases copies of successful instruments workshops held by the observatories. Tarenghi, who had participated in the were purchased. Other instruments were Several memorable meetings could be commissioning of the 3.6-metre tele- temporarily installed at La Silla tele- reported (for example, the structure of the scope and led the construction of the scopes (visitor instruments) to obtain Milky Way, Galaxy Bulges, SN 1987A). 2.2-metre MPG telescope, the NTT and observations of the southern skies. A common concern of all observatories is the VLT. He gave an overview of the Sandro D’Odorico described how the light pollution; for example, the new illu- changing scientific and technical land- 2.2-metre MPG telescope and the NTT mination of the Panamericana near scapes and the technological advances required new instrumentation that paved La Frontera leads to light pollution at the which led ultimately to the VLT tele- the way for many VLT instruments. La Silla and Las Campanas observato- scopes. Michel Dennefeld gave a first- ries. Guillermo Blanc reported on the hand history of some early developments The prominent NTT instruments, EFOSC, efforts undertaken by the Oficina de of telescopes and instrumentation. The ESO Multi-Mode Instrument (EMMI), Proteccíon de la Calidad del Cielo del first large project on La Silla was the SUperb Seeing Imager (SUSI) and Son of Norte de Chile (OPCC), a collaboration Quick Blue Survey, which provided full ISAAC (SofI) were important stepping of the observatories and the Sociedad photographic coverage of the southern stones.
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