Video News Release 13: First Light NAOS-CONICA (eso0137b)

Video News Release 13 - 2001.
Read more about it on the ESO press release eso0137 (December 2001)

ESO Video News Reel eso0137b ("First Light" NAOS-CONICA) is issued on December 4, 2001, in conjunction with the "First Light" event, described in eso0137. It is comprised of fully edited A-Roll, with a duration of 5:19 min, and a B-Roll with supplementary footage. The duration of the entire production is 13:00 min. The A-roll contains split audio with original sound, but no guide track, but is accompanied by a written, suggested narration.

The A-roll begins with a late-afternoon view of the VLT observing platform on the top of the Paranal mountain, then provides a look from the VLT control room. A short animation of the Hubble Space Telescope (for comparison) is followed by an animation illustrating how 'adaptive optics' is able to correct the image distortion induced by atmospheric turbulence.

Following this is footage from the night of "First Light" showing the exciting moment as the instrument is used for the first time. This is followed by astronomical images obtained during the first observing run.

First, for comparison, a picture obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope is shown, then the same object observed with NAOS/CONICA on the VLT. After this follows an observation of the core of the famous 30 Doradus Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud and finally a view of the region around the Becklin-Neugebauer object in the Orion star-forming region.

Following a short statement by Prof. Guy Monnet, Head of the ESO Instrumentation Division, at the moment of "First Light", the A-roll is completed with evening shots of the VLT on Paranal.

The B-Roll contains additional "First Light" astronomical images, footage from the instrument test phase in Paris, prior to shipment to the Paranal Observatory, and longer statements by Dr Nobert Hubin, Head of the ESO Adaptive Optics Group, on the astronomical importance of adaptive optics systems, the technical gain, applications in other fields as well as collaboration and partnership aspects.

This Video News Release is targeted especially at broadcasters for further editing. In order to keep the audio tracks editable, different sound information has been recorded on two separate tracks at optimal volumes as is common standard in professional post production. This video is not meant for on screen viewing — on ESOcasts are better suited for that.