La Silla Observing School (2024)

Sunset palette in the skies above La Silla

Santiago and La Silla Observatory, Chile, February 12 - 23, 2024

 

ESO is happy to announce the next La Silla Observing School, which will be held at the ESO premises in Santiago de Chile and at La Silla Observatory, from February 12th to February 23rd.

The school is targeted to PhD students and junior postdocs. Applicants are required to fill in the registration form and to arrange for a reference letter (preferrably in pdf-format) to be sent by their advisor to ls_school24@eso.org, indicating clearly the family name of the student. The application will be considered only after receiving the reference letter.

During two weeks of intense work the participants will have the opportunity to have hands-on real-life experience on the full cycle from proposal preparation to data analysis. The participants will be divided into several groups: each group will be assigned to a science tutor who will guide them through a science project they will be working on.

The school will start with lectures on the basics of observing techniques and how to prepare observations at ESO telescopes. On Feb 16th, the group will go up to La Silla Observatory for three nights of observations with the ESO NTT (Feb 18-20), two nights with HARPS on the 3.6m telescope (Feb 18+19), and three night with the ESO/MPG 2.2m telescope (Feb 18-20); data analysis will start on site. Once back in Santiago with the data in hand, the students will finish analysing their datasets. On the last day of the school, all groups will present their results to the public.

The school will be free for the selected applicants, and ESO will cover the local costs including lodging; however, they are expected to pay their travel to Santiago. Financial support for traveling may exceptionally be offered in well-justified cases only (due to a very limited budget).

 

Important dates:

  • Registration deadline: October 30th, 2023, at 18:00 Chile time
  • Announcement of selected students: November 15th, 2023
  • Arrival to Chile: February 11th, 2024, at the latest.

 

Write to us in case of questions: ls_school24@eso.org

Organizer: ESO

 

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ESO

ESO acknowledges the support from the MPIA for giving three nights of the ESO/MPG 2.2m telescope time to the summer school.