Announcement
President of the Czech Republic and Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs visit ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile
20 April 2026
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."
Contacts
Bárbara Ferreira
ESO Media Manager
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6670
Email: press@eso.org
Cristian Soto
ESO Media Officer Chile
Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
Tel: +56 2 2463 3151
Email: Cristian.Soto@eso.org
About the Announcement
| Id: | annlang26005-es-cl |
Images
Our use of Cookies
We use cookies that are essential for accessing our websites and using our services. We also use cookies to analyse, measure and improve our websites’ performance, to enable content sharing via social media and to display media content hosted on third-party platforms.
ESO Cookies Policy
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy. It carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities for astronomy.
This Cookies Policy is intended to provide clarity by outlining the cookies used on the ESO public websites, their functions, the options you have for controlling them, and the ways you can contact us for additional details.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device by websites you visit. They serve various purposes, such as remembering login credentials and preferences and enhance your browsing experience.
Categories of cookies we use
Essential cookies (always active): These cookies are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of our website. Without these cookies, the website cannot operate correctly, and certain services, such as logging in or accessing secure areas, may not be available; because they are essential for the website’s operation, they cannot be disabled.
Functional Cookies: These cookies enhance your browsing experience by enabling additional features and personalization, such as remembering your preferences and settings. While not strictly necessary for the website to function, they improve usability and convenience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent.
Analytics cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors interact with our website, such as which pages are visited most often and how users navigate the site. This data helps us improve website performance, optimize content, and enhance the user experience; these cookies are only placed if you provide your consent. We use the following analytics cookies.
Matomo Cookies:
This website uses Matomo (formerly Piwik), an open source software which enables the statistical analysis of website visits. Matomo uses cookies (text files) which are saved on your computer and which allow us to analyze how you use our website. The website user information generated by the cookies will only be saved on the servers of our IT Department. We use this information to analyze www.eso.org visits and to prepare reports on website activities. These data will not be disclosed to third parties.
On behalf of ESO, Matomo will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
Matomo cookies settings:
Additional Third-party cookies on ESO websites: some of our pages display content from external providers, e.g. YouTube.
Such third-party services are outside of ESO control and may, at any time, change their terms of service, use of cookies, etc.
YouTube: Some videos on the ESO website are embedded from ESO’s official YouTube channel. We have enabled YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode, meaning that no cookies are set unless the user actively clicks on the video to play it. Additionally, in this mode, YouTube does not store any personally identifiable cookie data for embedded video playbacks. For more details, please refer to YouTube’s embedding videos information page.
Cookies can also be classified based on the following elements.
Regarding the domain, there are:
- First-party cookies, set by the website you are currently visiting. They are stored by the same domain that you are browsing and are used to enhance your experience on that site;
- Third-party cookies, set by a domain other than the one you are currently visiting.
As for their duration, cookies can be:
- Browser-session cookies, which are deleted when the user closes the browser;
- Stored cookies, which stay on the user's device for a predetermined period of time.
How to manage cookies
Cookie settings: You can modify your cookie choices for the ESO webpages at any time by clicking on the link Cookie settings at the bottom of any page.
In your browser: If you wish to delete cookies or instruct your browser to delete or block cookies by default, please visit the help pages of your browser:
Please be aware that if you delete or decline cookies, certain functionalities of our website may be not be available and your browsing experience may be affected.
You can set most browsers to prevent any cookies being placed on your device, but you may then have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site/page. And some services and functionalities may not work properly at all (e.g. profile logging-in, shop check out).
Updates to the ESO Cookies Policy
The ESO Cookies Policy may be subject to future updates, which will be made available on this page.
Additional information
For any queries related to cookies, please contact: pdprATesoDOTorg.
As ESO public webpages are managed by our Department of Communication, your questions will be dealt with the support of the said Department.