Mededelingen 2018

9 februari 2018: Sprawling across the Atacama Desert, 66 antennas work in unison with extraordinary precision to make the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Together, these antennas capture images similar to what could be achieved using a single telescope measuring up to 16 kilometres in diameter. This ESOcast brings you sweeping views of the ALMA telescope, the largest millimetre/sub-millimetre telescope in the world, as it searches for our cosmic origins. You can subscribe to the ESOcasts on iTunes, receive future episodes on YouTube or follow us on Vimeo. Many other ESOcast episodes are also available. Find out how to view and contribute subtitles to the ESOcast in multiple languages. ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.

9 februari 2018: Since the very first people looked up at a star-filled sky we have been awestruck by the vastness of the cosmos. Even today we remain humbled by the immensity of space, as we have become more aware of the tremendous distances involved — even to our closest neighbouring stars. Created by Garik Israelian, a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), the Starmus Festival is a combination of science, art and music that has featured presentations from astronauts, cosmonauts, Nobel Prize winners and other prominent figures from science, culture, the arts and music. ESO is a partner organisation of Starmus. Starmus was inaugurated by Neil Armstrong in 2011 and previous Starmus festivals were held in 2011, 2014, 2016 and 2017. So far Starmus has hosted 21 Nobel laureates, many astronauts, and musicians including Hans Zimmer, Brian May, Rick Wakeman, Sarah Brightman and Brian Eno. Now celebrating ...

9 februari 2018: The 23rd issue of the Communicating Astronomy with the Public journal is out now! In this issue you will find papers on the methodology of applying experimental psychology to astronomy studies, using food to conduct astronomy outreach and language issues faced when conducting an international campaign. The latest issue will also look in the plans for the International Astronomical Union’s 100th anniversary in 2019. All of this, and more, is featured in this free, peer-reviewed journal for astronomy communicators — available now for download.

2 februari 2018: Big Science is a term that encapsulates the way in which scientific progress increasingly relies on large-scale projects, often funded by national governments or groups of governments, leading to increasingly collaborative research and global, scientific projects. It relies on businesses large and small from all over the world, in areas ranging from cryogenics, superconductors, materials and electronics — as well as groundbreaking astronomical technologies. This is why ESO, along with some of Europe's largest international science organisations, including CERN, ESA, EMBL, ESRF and others, is participating in the Big Science Business Forum 2018 (BSBF2018), from 26–28 February 2018, in Copenhagen, Denmark. With more than 650 delegates from 25 countries, and representing more than 250 businesses and organisations from the Big Science landscape, BSBF2018 aims to be the first “one-stop-shop” for European business and other stakeholders to learn about the status and future of Europe’s Big Science organisations. ESO is a ...

2 februari 2018: ESO’s Studentship programme provides a valuable opportunity for astronomers of the future to gain experience at the most productive ground-based astronomical observatory in the world. PhD students work alongside senior astronomers and engineers in a creative, collaborative and truly international environment, in which their careers are encouraged to blossom. In ESOcast 149 we hear from some of ESO’s current students about their experience at ESO, and they offer their advice to those considering following in their footsteps. You can subscribe to the ESOcasts on iTunes, receive future episodes on YouTube or follow us on Vimeo. Many other ESOcast episodes are also available. Find out how to view and contribute subtitles to the ESOcast in multiple languages, or translate this video on YouTube.

1 februari 2018: ESO invites you to take part in AstroCamera 2018 — an international competition in support of popularising astronomy and astrophotography. The competition is organised by the Hewelianum Centre in Gdańsk, Poland. The winners will receive grants from the organisers. ESO, as one of the partners of the event, will award prizes in the form of books and DVDs for the entries that receive honourable mentions from the judges. Initially launched in 2011 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the birth of the 17th century astronomer, Johannes Hevelius, the competition is open to all astronomy and astrophotography enthusiasts. The life and achievements of Hevelius, a renowned observer of the night sky, have inspired the Hewelianum Centre to make the AstroCamera competition a regular event, with this year marking the sixth time it has been held. The competition is organised into the following categories: Category I: Deep-sky objects (photographs of star ...

30 januari 2018: ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) now has a second instrument working with the powerful Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF). The infrared instrument HAWK-I (High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager) [1] is now also benefiting from sharper images and shorter exposure times. This follows the successful integration of the AOF with MUSE (the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer). The Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF) is a long-term project that is nearing completion on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). It provides adaptive optics correction for all the instruments attached to one of the VLT Unit Telescopes (UT4, also known as Yepun). Adaptive optics works to compensate for the blurring effect of the Earth’s atmosphere. This upgrade now enables HAWK-I to obtain sharper images, needing shorter exposure times than before to obtain similar results. By using the AOF, astronomers can now get good image quality with HAWK-I, even when the weather conditions are not perfect. Following a ...

29 januari 2018: ESO is inviting submissions for the fifth Photo Nightscape Awards (PNA) — an international competition for astrophotographers. As a partner in the competition, which is organised by the Chasseurs de Nuits association, ESO will provide an array of astronomical goodies for the winners. The competition categories for adult entrants are: Nightscape; Timelapse; and In Town. All three are open to photographers from all countries. The PNA Junior category, for entrants under 18 years old, is reserved for French nationals only. Anyone wishing to take part in the competition should submit a registration form, their photo or timelapse sequence and, if they are under 18 years of age, a parental consent form, to the following email address by 31 March 2018: pna@photonightscapeawards.com. Pictures must have been taken between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018. For more detailed information, please refer to the competition rules on the dedicated web page. The ...

19 januari 2018: On 26 April 2018, ESO will participate in Germany’s Girls’ Day activities, in which technology companies, universities and research organisations open their doors to female school students to give them an insight into scientific and technological professions and to encourage more of them to choose careers in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Places for the event are limited. To register, please visit the Girls’ Day website. The ESO Girls’ Day will introduce the work of ESO and highlight many of our daily activities, such as astrophysical research, mechanical and opto-mechanical design and integration, operations, and much more. The programme includes introductory talks as well as hands-on workshops on astronomy and engineering. The students will learn how astronomical instruments are built, tested and operated. They will also learn how data are collected and used in astronomical research to answer the big questions about the Universe. This will provide the ...

19 januari 2018: The development of a new spectrometer for the Morita Array, which forms part of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has been approved by the ALMA Board. Developed by Japan, the Morita Array is composed of twelve 7-metre antennas and four 12-metre antennas. The new spectrometer will be dedicated to the four 12-metre antennas under the ALMA Future Development Program, which aims to maintain ALMA’s capacity to produce remarkable scientific results. ALMA creates very sharp images by linking multiple antennas together to form a giant virtual telescope that can be up to 16 kilometres in diameter. The Morita Array forms one part of ALMA, and comprises antennas with small separations [1]. Radio waves collected by the ACA antennas are processed by the ACA Correlator, which combines the data from all of the antennas [2]. At present the ACA Correlator is optimised to process signals from the twelve 7-metre antennas, the ...

19 januari 2018: The winners of the 2017 Catch a Star Contest have been announced. ESO is providing each of the top five places with a mounted image of a particularly fascinating astronomical object. The top three places will also have the rare opportunity to carry out remote observations at the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory in Bulgaria. The top three prizes were awarded to: First prize:Astronomy and Mathematics: Estimation of the Sun rotation movements and the Earth translation, by Mario Martín and Susana Sánchez, from Spain. Second prize:61 Cygni, by Elina Hell Messner & Maximilian Komar, from Italy. Third prize:Steam Moon: An interdisciplinary vision of the Moon, by Miquel Macías & Martí Rubio, from Spain. A complete list of the winners can be found on the Catch a Star website. School students from around the world were invited to take part in the European astronomy contest Catch a Star. To participate students had ...

15 januari 2018: The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine, has announced the key dates for the Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 competition — its annual global search for the most beautiful and spectacular visions of the cosmos, whether they are striking pictures of vast galaxies millions of light-years away, or dramatic images of the night sky much closer to home. ESO supports the 2018 competition by providing a judge from its education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD). Now in its tenth year, the hugely popular competition opens to entrants on Monday 15 January, giving them the chance of taking home the grand prize of £10 000. Entrants will have until Friday 9 March to enter up to ten images in the various categories of the competition via www.rmg.co.uk/astrophoto. Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 has nine main categories: Skyscapes: Landscape and ...