eso0021 - Organisation Release

Paranal Impressions

16 June 2000

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The main construction phase at the ESO Paranal Observatory is now over and normal operations have begun with two of the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes, ANTU and KUEYEN. The next major event will be the installation of the first astronomical instrument, VIMOS (VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph), at the third telescope, MELIPAL. "First Light" for the fourth telescope, YEPUN will follow later this year. The present collection of 29 photos illustrates the current state of the VLT site. They have been divided by theme into five sections that may be accessed by clicking on the corresponding images above.

These photos were made by ESO photographer Hans Hermann Heyer in March 2000. Depending on the nature of the subject as well as the properties of the available photographic films, Leica M6, Hasselblad SWC, Linhof Technika 6x9 or Sinar 4x5" cameras were used. The objective focal length ranged from 21mm to 280mm, resulting in viewing angles from approximately 10° to 115°. Various Fuji and Kodak colour slide films with speeds from 18°/50 to 36°/3200 ISO/ASA were used. The reproductions shown here were scanned from the original films and image processed by the author.