Astrophysics (Index)About

European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope

(ESO VLT, VLT, Very Large Telescope)
(four 8.2-meter optical telescopes in Chile that can act together)

The ESO Very Large Telescope (or just Very Large Telescope or ESO VLT) consists of four 8.2-meter reflector telescopes located at the Paranal Observatory on the Atacama Desert in Chile, operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The four can be used separately or together. They observe at optical and infrared wavelengths. The four, which were completed individually over the years 1998-2000, are:

Among their instruments are:

These I'm less sure are still active:

Future:

Retired:

The term VLTI for Very Large Telescope Interferometer refers to it as an optical interferometer, e.g., when using GRAVITY. It features a 120-meter baseline. The term CCL for Combined-Coudé Laboratory refers to a room to which light from all four telescopes can be routed, which currently houses ESPRESSO; I believe rather than use for interferometry, CCL's purpose is to increase the light-collection by using more than one telescope, or possibly cover a larger FOV. Even with light from just one telescope, CCL provides an isolated, protected environment for delicate instrument operation. The term GRAVITY+ is used for an upgrade project for both VLTI and GRAVITY, but I'm not certain whether it adds or replaces an entire instrument.


(telescope,visible light,infrared,ESO,ultraviolet,ground,Chile,European,optical interferometer)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Telescope
https://www.eoportal.org/other-space-activities/vlt-1
http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/vlt/index.html
https://www.eso.org/public/products/books/book_0004/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1997Msngr..90....2T/abstract
PrefixExample  
VLTVLT085859.60-473127.5uncommon

Referenced by pages:
angular resolution
Atacama Desert
BEAST
Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS)
CRIRES
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
F4
fiber positioner
Gaia
integral field spectrograph
integral field unit (IFU)
KMOS
KMOS3D
monolithic mirror
Multi-object Optical and Near-IR Spectrograph (MOONS)
multi-object spectrograph
New Technology Telescope (NTT)
optical interferometer
Paranal Observatory
PESSTO
PHANGS
PRIMA
Ritchey-Chrétien telescope (RCT)
SINS
spectral resolution
SPHERE
VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS)
VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS)
VLT Survey Telescope (VST)
VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey (VFTS)
X-SHOOTER Lyman α survey at z = 2 (XLS-z2)
XQR-30

Index