Report on the ESO Workshop "The La Silla Observatory — From Inauguration to the Future"

Abstract

The historical context of astronomical observatories in Chile was given by Bárbara Silva from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The earliest astronomical site explorations by US astronomers were carried out around the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries and identified the Atacama Desert around Copiapó and north of La Serena as potentially excellent sites for nighttime observations. The International Geophysical Year in 1958 brought the Chilean sites to the attention of American astronomers again and site explorations by Jürgen Stock — originally for the University of Chicago and later for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) — identified mountains around Vicuña as possible observatory sites. After the US National Science Foundation selected Cerro Tololo as their southern station, ESO also became interested (through Stock’s former advisor Otto Heckmann, then ESO Director General). This was a rather abrupt change from the original plan to place the ESO observatory in southern Africa. Within a few years the La Silla mountain was selected and developed. Silva finished her presentation by displaying a stamp showing the ESO 1-metre telescope, which was issued by the Chilean Postal Office in 1973.