Contents Altitude, ESO Operates Several Optical Telescopes with Diameters up to 3.6 M REPORTS from OBSERVERS and a Submillimetre Radio Telescope (SEST)

Home , Arches Cluster

ESO, the European Southern Observa- ESO Workshop Proceedings Still Available tory, was created in 1962 to “... establish and operate an astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere, equipped Many ESO Conference and Workshop Proceedings are still available and may be ordered at the European Southern Observatory. Some of the more recent ones are listed below. with powerful instruments, with the aim of furthering and organising collaboration No. Title Price in astronomy...” It is supported by ten countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, 54 Topical Meeting on “Adaptive Optics”, October 2–6, 1995, Garching, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portu- Germany. M. Cullum (ed.) 7 40.– gal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United 55 NICMOS and the VLT. A New Era of High Resolution Near Infrared Imaging Kingdom. ESO operates at two sites in and Spectroscopy. Pula, Sardinia, Italy, May 26–27, 1998 7 40.– the Atacama desert region of Chile. The new Very Large Telescope (VLT), the 56 ESO/OSA Topical Meeting on “Astronomy with Adaptive Optics – Present largest in the world, is located on Results and Future Programs”. Sonthofen, Germany, September 7–11, Paranal, a 2,600 m high mountain ap- 1999. D. Bonaccini (ed.) 7100.– proximately 130 km south of Antofa- 57 Bäckaskog Workshop on “Extremely Large Telescopes”. Bäckaskog, gasta, in the driest part of the Atacama Sweden, June 1–2, 1999. T. Andersen, A. Ardeberg, R. Gilmozzi (eds.) 7 30.– desert where the conditions are excellent for astronomical observations. The VLT 58. Beyond Conventional Adaptive Optics, Venice, Italy, May 7–10, 2001 consists of four 8.2-metre diameter tele- E. Vernet, R. Ragazzoni, S. Esposito, N. Hubin (eds.) 7 50.– scopes. These telescopes can be used separately, or in combination as a giant interferometer (VLTI). At La Silla, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at 2,400 m Contents altitude, ESO operates several optical telescopes with diameters up to 3.6 m REPORTS FROM OBSERVERS and a submillimetre radio telescope (SEST). Over 1300 proposals are made T. Ott et al.: Inward Bound: Studying the Galactic Centre with each year for the use of the ESO tele- NAOS/CONICA ...... 1 scopes. The ESO headquarters are lo- A. Stolte et al.: NAOS-CONICA Performance in a Crowded Field – cated in Garching, near Munich, Ger- many. This is the scientific, technical and the Arches Cluster ...... 9 administrative centre of ESO where tech- M. Pettini: Early Galactic Chemical Evolution with UVES ...... 13 nical development programmes are car- O. Le Fèvre et al.: The VIRMOS-VLT Deep Survey: ried out to provide the Paranal and La a Progress Report ...... 18 Silla observatories with the most ad- H. Boehnhardt et al.: Exploring the Icy World of the Edgeworth- vanced instruments. There are also ex- tensive astronomical data facilities. ESO Kuiper Belt – An ESO Large Programme ...... 22 employs about 320 international staff A. Cimatti et al.: The K20 Survey: New Light on Galaxy Formation members, Fellows and Associates in and Evolution ...... 29 Europe and Chile, and about 160 local B. Venemans, G. Miley, J. Kurk, H. Röttgering, L. Pentericci: staff members in Chile. Tracing the Formation and Evolution of Clusters and their The ESO MESSENGER is published Central Massive Galaxies to z > 4: a Progress Report ...... 36 four times a year: normally in March, June, September and December. ESO TELESCOPES AND INSTRUMENTATION also publishes Conference Proceedings, Preprints, Technical Notes and other ma- ESO and NSF Sign Agreement on ALMA. Green Light for World’s terial connected to its activities. Press Most Powerful Radio Observatory ...... 39 Releases inform the media about partic- New Vistas Open with MIDI at the VLT Interferometer ...... 40 ular events. For further information, con- V. Doublier: TIMMI2 at the 3.6-m, or the Return of MIR ...... 41 tact the ESO Education and Public Relations Department at the following address: OTHER ASTRONOMICAL NEWS

EUROPEAN NEWS FROM SANTIAGO SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY D. Alloin, M. Pierre, A. Refregier: International Workshop on Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2 “Structure Evolution and Cosmology: New Synergy Between D-85748 Garching bei München Ground-Based Observations, Space Observations and Theory” . 42 Germany Tel. (089) 320 06-0 D. Alloin, W. Gieren: International Workshop on “Stellar Candles Telefax (089) 3202362 for the Extragalactic Distance Scale” ...... 43 [email protected] (internet) B. Leibundgut: Fellows at ESO: Aurore Bacmann, Maria-Rosa Cioni, URL: http://www.eso.org http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/pubs/ Ivo Saviane and Petri Vaisanen ...... 44 messenger/ URANUS, Rings and Moons ...... 45

ANNOUNCEMENTS The ESO Messenger: Editor: Peter Shaver ESO Workshop on Large Programmes and Public Surveys ...... 46 Technical editor: Kurt Kjär ESO Workshop on High-Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy in Astronomy ...... 46 Printed by Universitätsdruckerei First Announcement of an ESO Workshop on Science with Adaptive WOLF & SOHN Optics ...... 47 Heidemannstr. 166 Personnel Movements ...... 47 D-80939 München Acronyms Used at ESO ...... 48 Germany ESO Studentship Programme ...... 48 ISSN 0722-6691 MESSENGER INDEX 2002 (Nos. 107–110) ...... 49