European Southern Observatory

intergovernmental organization and observatory in Chile

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, officially called the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere), is a research group for astronomy, made up of fourteen countries from Europe. Made in 1962 to give state-of-the-art facilities and a view the Southern Sky to European astronomers, it is well known for using some of the largest and most advanced telescopes in the world, such as the New Technology Telescope (NTT), the telescope that helped create active optics technology, and the VLT (Very Large Telescope), made of four 8-meter class telescopes and four 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes.

European Southern Observatory
Formation1962
Typeresearch organization for astronomy
Membership
14 member countries
Websitewww.eso.org

Member countries change

Country Accession
  Belgium 1962
  Germany 1962
  France 1962
  Netherlands 1962
  Sweden 1962
  Denmark 1967
   Switzerland 1981
  Italy 24 May 1982
  Portugal 27 June 2000
  United Kingdom 8 July 2002
  Finland 1 July 2004
  Spain 1 July 2006
  Czech Republic 1 January 2007
  Austria 1 July 2008
  Poland 28 October 2014
  Ireland 28 September 2018