La Silla Paranal Observatory: 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 three major telescopes: the 3.6m telescope, the New Technology Telescope (NTT), and the 2.2-m Max-Planck-ESO telescope. 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 1.2-m Swiss Telescope and the 1.5-m Danish Telescope.
In Case of Emergency
In all Emergencies, dial 4444 from any phoning station,
or use beeper (93) code 00
Read the Emergency Procedures
Quick Links
- La Silla Paranal Observatory
- Paranal Facilities
- APEX
- VISITOR GUIDELINES
- End of Mission Report
- EFOSC2 Setup Form
Contact Information
- Contact Overview
- Paranal Contact List:
- La Silla Contact List
- APEX Contact List
Visiting the Observatory
- Please read the details about Visiting the La Silla Paranal Observatory sites
- Read more about La Silla and its History