THE MESSENGER

No. 1- May 1974

Prof. A. BlaauwDirector-General, ESO

-------

To All ESO Statt Members

With this issue, we launch the ESOMESSENGER in its orbit in ESO, andwish it a fruitful mission. Its task will be,first of all, to promote the participationof ESO statt in what goes on in the Orga­nization, especially at piaces of dutyother than our own. Moreover, THEMESSENGER may serve to give the worldoutside some impression of what hap­pens inside ESO.

The need for more internal com­munication within ESO is feit by manyof the staff. The dispersion of our re­sources over several countries in widelyseparated continents demands a specialeffort to keep us aware of what is goingon at the other establishments. Our tasksare always part of one large adventure that can fareweil only if each of its components is healthily adjustedto the others.

The contents of THE MESSENGER will be varied toinclude occasional progress reports on our main pro­jects as weil as information on general developmentsand messages concerning personnel. This first issuemay be taken as an indication of the character we havein mind, but clearly it will be only in the course of timethat THE MESSENGER will find its proper shape. Timealso will show how large the newsletter should be andhow often it should appear. For the moment we thinkthat three-month intervals will be about right. Certainarticles for this first issue were obtained at a ratherearly stage in the preparations, but they are consideredto be still of sutticient interest for inclusion.

A todo el personal de ESO

Con la presente edici6n estamos lan­zando EL MENSAJERO ESO en su 6rbitay Je deseamos una exitosa misi6n. Suobjetivo sera en primer lugar informar alpersonal de ESO sobre 10 que sucededentro de la Organizaci6n, especial­mente en lugares distintos al propio lu­gar de trabajo. Ademas, EL MENSAJEROservira para dar una impresi6n al mundeexterno de 10 que ocurre dentro de ESO.

Un gran numero dei personal de ESOha sentido la necesidad de tener unamayor comunicaci6n interna. Debido ala dispersi6n de nuestros recursos envarios pafses ubicados en distintoscontinentes se requiere un esfuerzoespecial para informar sobre 10 que

sucede en los demas establecimientos. Nuestras tareassiempre forman parte de una gran aventura que s610puede IIegar a un feliz termine si todos sus componen­tes se ajustan sanamente unas a otras.

En cuanto al contenido dei MENSAJERO este tendrala suficiente variaci6n como para incluir informes sobreel progreso de nuestros principales proyectos comotambien mensajes sobre el desarrollo en general ysobre el personal. Rogamos aceptar esta primera edi­ci6n como una indicaci6n sobre 10 que estamos tra­tando de presentar, porque s610 con el transcurso deitiempo EL MENSAJERO encontrara la forma mas apro­piada. Tambien s610 el tiempo demostrara el tamafioque debera tener este informativo y la frecuencia conla cual debera aparecer. Por el momente opinamos queuna publicaci6n trimestral es la mas indicada. Aigunos

1

The editor, Mr. Walsh, has asked several membersof our staff to help in acquiring contributions and it hasbeen agreed that a few coordinators will act at thevarious establishments: Dr. Havlen in Chile and Mr.Rodgers in Geneva. Their collaboration will be muchappreciated.

THE MESSENGER is intended to reach all ESO stattwhatever their native language, and therefore we shallinclude contributions in Spanish. Abstracts of some ofthe other articles will be given. A. Blaauw

articulos en esta primera edici6n fueron recibidos haceya bastante tiempo, pero pensamos que aLm tienensuficiente interes para incluirlos.

EI redactor, Sr. Walsh, ha pedido la cooperaci6n devarios miembros dei personal para recibir informacionesy se ha acordado que este trabajo sera realizado poralgunos coordinadores en los distintos establecimien­tos: Dr. Havlen en Chile y Sr. Rodgers en Ginebra. Sucolaboraci6n sera altamente apreciada.

Es nuestra intenci6n que EL MENSAJERO lIegue atodo el personal de ESO cualesquiera que sea su idio­ma, y es por eso que incluiremos articulos en caste­lIano. Se haran resumenes de algunos de los demasartfculos.

Preparations tor ESO/SRC ConterencePreparations are under way for the ESO / SRC con­ference on "Research Programmes for the New Large

Telescopes", to be held at CERN on May 27-31, 1974.

This conference will be in line with previous ESOmeetings dealing with large telescope design and withauxiliary instrumentation developments, and the empha­sis is to be on the southern hemisphere.

With three large southern telescopes soon becomingoperational (CTIO, Anglo-Australian and ESOl, thereare good reasons for having joint discussions withparticipants from the large projects outside ESO con­cerning the first areas for research with these instru­ments.

The programme as presently outlined will compriseseven half-day sessions - one afternoon will be devotedto an excursion to the CERN laboratories - covering thefollowing topics:

Research programmes for large telescopes now inoperation,

Southern hemisphere problems,

Observational cosmology,

Instrumental capabilities,

Philosophy of telescope use.

The conference will start on Monday afternoon with anintroductory talk given by Dr. J. L. Greenstein of theCalifornia Institute of Technology and the Haie Obser­vatories, dealing with large telescope astronomy ingeneral. Dr. Greenstein has been chairman of the Astro­nomy Survey Committee of the U. S. National Academyof Sciences, whose task it was to consider the needfor major new astronomical facilities in the UnitedStates during the seventies. The results and recommen­dations of the Survey Committee are embodied in twovolumes, entitled "Astronomy and Astrophysics for the1970s". Clearly Dr. Greenstein's involvement in thisproject makes him eminently suited to give the intro­ductory talk at the conference.

Dr. Greenstein's lecture will be followed by shortercontributions by speakers from the big observatories

2

- HaIe, Lick and Kitt Peak - on research carried out orplanned for the near future at these institutes.

Following the first introductory session, lectures onspecialized topics are scheduled for the next day: in­frared astronomy, nearby galaxies, quasi-stellar objects,

globular clusters in the southern sky and so on.

In the afternoon session of the second day, theore­tical aspects will be covered, an introductory paperbeing followed by shorter contributions on specializedsubjects.

The Wednesday morning session will be devotedentirely to the Magellanic Clouds, on which a specialsymposium was arranged in Santiago in March, 1969,in connection with the inauguration of the ESO Obser­vatory on La Silla.

The afternoon is reserved for an excursion to theCERN facilities.

The Thursday morning session will deal with obser­vational cosmology, an introductory talk followed bycontributions presenting optical and radio-astronomi­cal aspects of cosmological problems.

In the Thursday afternoon session instrumental capa­bilities will be discussed from a classical point of view.The new photographic emulsions and new powerfultechniques for sensitizing photographic plates are bring­ing about a renaissance in astronomical photography.This session will be in the form of a panel discussionwith four introductory speakers, dealing with the astro­nomical applications of the new emulsions, the extrac­tion of information trom photographic plates using fastcomputer technique and further reports on the ESOSky Atlas and the parallel Science Research Councilsouthern sky Schmidt project.

The last session, on Friday morning, will be in theform of a panel discussion on a subject being raisedprobably for the first time at a conference: the philo­sophy of telescope use. This discussion concerning theallocation of time on large telescopes, with referenceto the very high hourly operational costs, the searchfor more etticient methods of telescope use and so on,will undoubtedly give rise to a varied exchange ofopinions. A. Reiz