The
European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental, European organisation for astronomical
research. It has eight member countries:
Belgium,
Denmark,
France,
Germany,
Italy,
the Netherlands,
Sweden and
Switzerland.. ESO operates astronomical observatories in
Chile and has its
headquarters in Garching, near Munich,
Germany.
ESO operates at two sites. It operates the La Silla observatory in the Atacama desert, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile, at 2,400 m altitude, where fourteen optical telescopes with diameters up to
3.6 m and a 15-m submillimetre radio telescope (SEST) are now in operation. In addition, ESO is in the process of building the Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Paranal, a 2,600 m high mountain
approximately 130 km south of Antofagasta, in the driest part of the Atacama desert. The VLT consists of four 8.2-meter and several 1.8-meter telescopes. These telescopes can also be used in
combination as a giant interferometer (VLTI). "First Light" of the first 8.2-meter telescope (UT1) occurred in May 1998. UT1 will be available on a regular basis for astronomical observations from
April 1999 on. Over 1000 proposals are made each year for the use of the ESO telescopes.
from :http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/eso-info.html