La Silla Observing School (2025)

Sunset palette in the skies above La Silla

Santiago and La Silla Observatory, Chile, February 10 - 21, 2025

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 the La Silla Observatory, from February 10 to February 21.

During two weeks of intense work the participants will have a hands-on real-life experience on the full cycle from observation planning, observing with professional 2-4 meter telescopes and the data reduction & analysis afterwards. All this will be done with the help of experienced tutors.

The school is primarily meant for PhD students in Astronomy who wish to gain experience in observing with professional telescopes. MSc students in the late stages of their thesis work will also be considered.

The school will be free for the students, and ESO will cover lodging in Santiago and at La Silla plus the travel from Santiago to La Silla and back. The students, however, are expected to pay for their travel to Santiago as well as for dinner during their stay in Santiago. We ask potential applicants to clarify the funding situation with their supervisors before applying to the school. ESO has a very limited budget for the organization of the school, thus financial support (up to a few hundred EUR) may be offered in exceptional and well-justified cases only. Requests for financial support will be collected at the registration.

 

How to apply:

Registration (on this page) will open on September 1st and will close on September 30th, end of the day.

As we usually receive many applications for the La Silla Observing School, it is very important that the applicants motivate their application well and also have a recommendation letter sent (preferrably in pdf-format) by their advisor to ls25_school@eso.org, indicating clearly the family name of the applicant. Applications without a reference letter will not be considered.

 

Important dates:

  • Registration deadline: September 30th, 2024.
  • Announcement of selected students: end of October.
  • Arrival to Santiago de Chile: February 9th, 2025, at the latest.

 

LOC: F. Rodler, P. Jirón, L. Kiefer & the La Silla Logistics Team

Write to us in case of questions: ls25_school@eso.org

Organizer: ESO

 

Quick links



 

ESO

ESO