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Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be an astronomer? 

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Let’s take you behind the scenes and see what 24 hours in the life of an ESO staff astronomer is like. 

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The countdown for an exciting night with an observation run

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at the world´s most advanced optical telescope, the ESO VLT, has begun…

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This is the ESOcast! 

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Cutting-edge science and life behind the scenes of ESO, the European Southern Observatory. 

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Exploring the Universe’s ultimate frontier with our host Dr J, a.k.a. Dr Joe Liske.

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Hello and welcome to the ESOcast. 

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In today’s episode, we’re going to follow a day in the life of Dieter Nürnberger. 

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Dieter is a staff astronomer at ESO. 

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His job is to support those scientists that have managed to get observing time on ESO’s Very Large Telescope 

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at Paranal Observatory in Chile.

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Now, ESO receives about 1000 applications for observing time every six months,

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and only about one in five of those are actually selected. 

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Dieter spends most of his working days helping the successful few to make ground-breaking discoveries. 

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Dieter Nürnberger is on his way to meet the visiting scientists, 

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Chris Tinney and his PhD student Stephen Parker, to team up for the night to come. 

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The three have been observing together for several nights;

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today is their final evening and they are keen to get started. 

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Over dinner they discuss plans for the night ahead.

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Well before sunset, they leave the Residencia 

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and drive up the desert road to the building housing the VLT control room.

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At the control building they prepare the observations and check the set-up of the telescope. 

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Observing time on these great telescopes is precious and delays must be avoided at all costs. 

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Like a pilot checking his plane before departure, Dieter goes through a detailed check of “his” instrument, 

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while the telescope operator does the same for the giant telescope.

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Everything is good to go, so the team goes to the telescope platform to inspect the weather. 

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The astronomers have travelled far for a glorious view of the Universe, 

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and here a glorious view of the sunset is included for free! 

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As usual at Paranal, the conditions are perfect 

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and Dieter and the visiting astronomers return with high expectations.

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So, here we go! 

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This is when all the hard work and preparation pay off. 

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For many astronomers, this is a long awaited moment when they finally get to use

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one of the world’s most advanced science machines to test their ideas of the Universe.

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Let's join them and see how the first observations of the night are going.

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Cocooned in the high-tech environment of the control room, the observing programme is underway.

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Although the observation is running smoothly, it still requires the full attention of our team. 

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The telescope and weather conditions are monitored continuously. 

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Image quality is looking pretty good across the whole field.

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The team is using a very clever technique called methane imaging to detect brown dwarfs — 

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objects too small and too cold to fuse hydrogen into their centres and which, therefore, can be called failed stars.

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What will the data reveal?

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There's nice round images everywhere, which is what we like to see.

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The first half of the night is a success, and the team has already collected a lot of data.

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So, this is a good moment to shift down a gear. 

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While Dieter and his companions stop over for their midnight lunch, the telescope doesn’t sit idle though. 

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Their observations continue, being monitored by the telescope instrument operator.

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As the observations progress, it is vital that the support astronomer and the visiting astronomers are in constant dialogue: 

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Is this the data quality that we expected to see? 

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Do we continue with this target or do we proceed with the next one?

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Do we change the instrument set-up or do we keep it? 

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With Dieter´s expert knowledge of the VLT and its instruments,

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the visiting astronomers can evaluate and decide their observing strategy in real time.

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At dawn the observation run comes to an end. 

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Our team is tired but happy! 

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The acquired data look extremely promising

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and now need to be analysed back in the home institute of the visiting astronomers.

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This is certainly the best data that anyone's acquired for this sort of experiment before.

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OK, here comes the night report.

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The night report is handed over

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and the astronomers leave the control room building and head back to the Residencia.

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For the visiting astronomers this is the end of their observing run, so for them it’s time to say goodbye!

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Or rather, see you next time...

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But for Dieter the day isn’t quite over...

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As usual, after an observing run at the VLT, Dieter seeks some relaxation in the morning before going to bed. 

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The swimming pool of the Residencia was built to humidify the extremely dry desert air, 

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but can certainly be used for a quick swim.

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It’s an amazing place, isn’t it?

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But for Dieter, it’s all in a day’s work. 

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Tonight he will sleep well, safe in the knowledge 

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that the VLT has once again delivered first class data to its users.

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This is Dr J signing off for the ESOcast. 

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Join me again next time for another cosmic adventure.

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ESOcast is produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. www.eso.org

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ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in astronomy

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designing, constructing and operating the world's most advanced ground-based telescopes.

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Transcription by ESO ; translation by —