President of the Czech Republic and Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs visit ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile

Petr Pavel, President of the Czech Republic, his wife Eva Pavlová, Francisco Pérez Mackenna, Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a large Czech delegation have concluded a visit to ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Northern Chile. The delegation included the Czech Ambassador to Chile, Pavel Bechny, the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Radomír Pánek, the President of the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Michal Bursa, as well as journalists and representatives of Czech companies.

ESO’s Director General Xavier Barcons welcomed President Pavel, Minister Pérez Mackenna and the rest of the delegation to the Paranal Observatory on 17 April. The visitors toured ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) construction site, before heading to the Very Large Telescope (VLT), where they observed the opening of one of the telescopes. Later in the evening, they watched the lasers from the VLT platform — a key element of the telescope’s adaptive optics system that compensates for turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere — and visited the VLT control room. During their stay, the high-level visitors had the opportunity to experience Paranal’s facilities and outstanding dark skies in person, as well as find out more about the ELT and how it will expand our understanding of the Universe. The delegation also learned about the business opportunities created by ESO’s development of cutting-edge technology..

The Czech Republic, joined ESO in 2007, becoming the first Member State from the Central and Eastern European region. Czech institutions have made important contributions to the development of instruments and telescopes owned by ESO and those hosted at ESO sites. For instance, Czech companies have contributed to both Paranal and ELT instrumentation. Further south, at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, a consortium led by the Czech Academy of Sciences has also given new life to ESO’s 1.52m telescope, with the PLATO Spec instrument.

“We are very pleased to welcome President Pavel and his delegation to Paranal,” said Barcons. “The Czech Republic has been a very engaged and supportive ESO Member State for almost 20 years. The introduction of an engineering and scientific trainee programme at ESO for Czech nationals, now a model for other Member States, and the engagement of Czech institutes in ELT instrumentation, are examples of how the collaboration between ESO and the Czech Republic is both advancing astronomy and investing in the next generation of scientists and engineers.”

Regarding the presence of Minister Pérez Mackenna during the visit, Barcons said: “The Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs’ participation on this visit underscores the solid and fruitful relationship that ESO has maintained with Chile — which hosts all of our existing telescopes — for more than six decades. Technology developed by the Czech Republic and other ESO Member States bears scientific fruits in large part thanks to this long-standing collaboration with Chile, whose remarkably dark and pristine skies we are privileged to observe from ensure the highest scientific value of the observations.”

Courtesy of European Southern Observatory