ESO Movie 09: Future Astronomers of Europe

By the end of this decade, the 16-m Very Large Telescope (VLT) will enter into service. Operated by ESO, the European astronomy organisation, it will be the largest optical telescope in the world and will offer future generations of astronomers unique possibilities to study the universe.

This is the background for an essay contest, in which grammar school pupils in 17 European countries as well as Chile were invited to write about how they would like to use the VLT. The contest formed ESO´s contribution to the first European Week for Scientific Culture, an initiative by the European Commission. Very appropriately, the ESO programme was called „The Future Astronomers of Europe“.

In each country, the author of the best essay was invited to visit ESO and participate in a real observing run with two ESO telescopes. Thus, for 16 days, the 18 first-prize winners had a unique chance to experience themselves how modern science is done.

This film documents the ESO programme including the successful observations with the 0.9-m and the 3.5-m New Technology Telescope at ESO´s La Silla observatory in Chile.