La Silla at night

Stunning image of the night sky over La Silla observatory.

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 two major telescopes: the ESO 3.6-metre and the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT). 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 many national telescopes, including the Swiss 1.2-metre Leonhard Euler Telescope and the Danish 1.54-metre telescope.