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On Saturday 15 October, 

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ESO — the European Southern Observatory — 

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opened the doors of its headquarters in Germany to the public.

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Throughout the day, thousands of visitors had the chance to help build 

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a full-size mock-up mirror of the largest planned telescope in the world 

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— the European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT — 

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and to experience many other aspects of ESO’s work.

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This is the ESOcast! 

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Cutting-edge science and life behind the scenes at ESO, 

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the European Southern Observatory.

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

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ESO’s 2011 Open House Day 

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attracted around 3100 visitors to its headquarters,

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in Garching near Munich, Germany. 

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The visitors were curious to find out more about ESO’s world-class facilities 

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and front line scientific results. 

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Participants had a wide variety of activities to choose from, 

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with the highlight of the event being the construction of a life-size cardboard mock-up 

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of the E-ELT’s giant 39.3-metre mirror. 

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This gave participants a unique chance to experience the true scale 

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of the world’s future biggest eye on the sky.

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Because the E-ELT’s main mirror is so large, 

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it consists of 798 individual hexagonal mirrors, 

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each about 1.4 metres across.

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Using pegs and an outline of the mirror on the ground, 

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enthusiastic visitors of all ages placed the cardboard hexagons on the ground 

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to slowly form the giant mirror.

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When finished, the full-size mock-up measured 39.3 metres across 

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and occupied an area of nearly 1000 square metres next to the ESO Headquarters.

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Additionally, there were talks on hot topics in astronomy, 

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and video links to the Very Large Telescope,

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giving people the opportunity to chat live with ESO astronomers

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working on Cerro Paranal in the Chilean Atacama Desert. 

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Children and their parents enjoyed having their photos taken in infrared light, 

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and observing the Sun through telescopes equipped with suitable filters.

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Three exhibitions were dedicated to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), 

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the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 

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and the future E-ELT. 

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Once again, the Open House Day at ESO was a great opportunity for people to discover 

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the latest exciting developments 

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from the world’s most productive astronomical observatory.

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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.

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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 —

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Now that you've caught up with ESO, 

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head 'out of this world' with Hubble. 

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The Hubblecast highlights the latest discoveries of the world´s most recognized and prized space observatory, 

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the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope