Scientific Programme - La Silla Observing School 2026

Program Overview

Monday, February 2 Monday, February 9
Tuesday, February 3 Tuesday, February 10
Wednesday, February 4 Wednesday, February 11
Thursday, February 5 Thursday, February 12
Friday-Sunday, February 6-8 Friday, February 13
Monday, February 2nd  
09:30 - 10:15

Registration, Welcome + a brief history of ESO and La Silla (Elyar Sedaghati)

  
10:15 - 11:00 Basic concepts of ground-based observing + Introduction to telescopes (Alain Smette? [to confirm by October])
  
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break  
11:30 - 12:45
 Types of astronomical instruments (Eleonora Sani)  
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch  
14:00 - 14:30 Introduction of the tutors and observing projects (5 min each)  
14:30 - 15:15 Students presentations: who you are, what you are doing (science, hobby, etc. - 2 min each)  
15:15 - 15:45 Coffee break  
15:45 - 16:30 How to record and store astronomical data - detectors, FITS format (Abel de Burgos)
  
16:30 - 17:30 Introduction to Spectroscopy (Luca Sbordone)  
Tuesday, February 3rd  
09:30 - 10:30 Introduction to Imaging and Photometry (Johnathan Smoker)  
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee break  
11:00 - 12:00 Instruments on La Silla: HARPS+NIRPS @ 3.6m & EFOSC @ NTT (Gaspare Lo Curto/Emanuela Pompei)
  
12:00 - 12:45 Introduction to ETC, P2 and OBs (Florian Rodler)  
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch  
14:00 - 15:45 Data reduction: basic concepts, with an introduction to ESO's archive & pipelines (Michael Marsset & Thallis Pessi)
  
15:45 - 16:00
 Coffee break  
16:00 - 16:10 Organization of project groups with tutors  
16:10 - 17:00 Write a successful proposal for your project - talk + practical session (Henri Boffin)  
17:00 - 18:30 Project work  
Wednesday, February 4th
  
09:00

Departure from the hotel to the La Silla Observatory

  
21:00 Safety talk  
Thursday, February 5th  
14:00 Introduction to La Silla observatory & a P2 refresher (Elyar Sedaghati)  
15:30 Visit to the telescopes  
Evening Preparation of the observations; Project work  
Friday-Sunday, February 6th-8th
Observations
Monday, February 9th  
Afternoon
 HARPS observations, taking pending calibrations; data reduction & analysis
  
Tuesday, February 10th
09:30 Departure from the La Silla Observatory
Wednesday, February 11th  
12:00 - 13:00 Project work  
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch  
14:00 - 16:00 Project work  
16:00 - 16:15 Coffee break  
16:15 - 18:30
 Project work  
Thursday, February 12th  
10:00 - 11:00 Careers in astronomy, including the ESO Studentship and Fellowships (Claudia Paladini)  
11:00 - 11:15 Coffee break  
11:15 - 12:15 Introduction to Interferometry (Aaron Labdon)  
12:15 - 13:00 Introduction to radio astronomy and ALMA (Elizabeth Artur)  
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch  
14:00 - 16:00 Project work
  
16:00 - 16:15 Coffee break  
16:15 - 18:30
 Project work  
     
18:30 BBQ in the garden of ESO Vitacura
  
Friday, February 13th  
10:00 - 11:00 The future: The ELT (Rob De Rosa)  
11:00 - 11:15 Coffee break  
11:15 - 12:00 Astronomy in Chile (TBD)  
12:00 - 13:00

Group Presentations: 1 (30 mins each)

  • Project 1
  • Project 2
  
13:00 - 14:00 Lunch  
14:00 - 15:30

Presentations: Groups 2-5  (30 min each)

  • Project 3
  • Project 4
  • Project 5
  
15:30 - 16:00 Discussion & Concluding Remarks  
16:00 -
 Wine & Cheese in the ESO garden
  

Quick links



 

ESO

ESO 2026