First light for MELIPAL

Impressions from the MELIPAL "First Light" event

This Video Clip shows sequences from the Control Room at the Paranal Observatory, recorded with a fixed TV-camera on January 27 at 03:00 UT, soon after the moment of "First Light" with the third 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope (MELIPAL). The video sequences were transmitted via ESO's dedicated satellite communication link to the Headquarters in Garching for production of the Clip.

It begins with a statement by the Manager of the VLT Project, Dr. Massimo Tarenghi, as exposures of the Crab Nebula are obtained with the telescope and the raw frames are successively displayed on the monitor screen. In a following sequence, ESO's Director General, Dr. Catherine Cesarsky, briefly relates the moment of "First Light" for MELIPAL, as she experienced it at the telescope controls.