ESO's early history : the European Southern Observatory from concept to reality

This book, written by Professor Adriaan Blaauw (ESO Director General 1970 - 1974), tells the early story of ESO. It begins in the early 1950's when leading European astronomers initiated the project and started a search for the best possible site under the comparatively unexplored southern sky. It describes the development of ESO up to about 1975. This book tells the early story of the European Southern Observatory ESO Early History Titelpage 1 The European Southern Observatory in 1991 6 Contents 9 Foreword 15 Preface 17 I. Striving Towards the Convention 19 A Historical Statement 19 Towards the Convention 25 Withrawal of Great Britain 27 The Grant of the ford Foundation 28 Founding Fathers 30 The Final Struggles 32 II. Searching for a Site in South Africa 37 Introduction 37 First Impressions 37 Astronomical "Seeing" 39 Adding Some "Real" Astronomy 43 The Quick-Look Expedition 45 The Comprehensive Programme, 1961-1963 49 Last Tests in South Africa: the Siedentopf Experiment 52 The Tübingen Photometric Project 53 The Marseilles GPO Project 53 The Comprehensive Reports on the South African Tests 56 At the End, Bewilderment and Consent 59 For South Africa, A Word of Gratitude 59 III. 26 May 1964: ESO Chooses La Silla 61 Jürgen Stock ́s Early Explorations 61 ESO ́s Growing Interes in the Andes 62 Muller and McSharry Join Stock ́s Group 66 The June 1963 AURO-ESO Summit Meeting in Chile 67 Follow-up on the Summit Meeting 68 ESO Chooses the Andes Mountains for its Observatory 73 The Convenio with Chile 74 The Relation to AURO 75 ESO Chooses La Silla 76 IV. Council and Directorate set to Work; the Initial Programme of Middle-Size Telescopes 83 Introduction 83 Heckmann Becomes ESO ́s First Director, November 1962 83 Council and Finance Committee 85 Earliest Developments in Instrumentation 87 ESO ́s Oldest Committee, the Instrumentation Commitee 88 The Middle-Size Telescopes 91 The 1-Metre Photometric Telescope 92 The Spectrographic Telescope 94 The GPO (Grand Prism Objectif.) 96 The Astrolabe 98 ESO Chooses its Emblem 99 V. Earliest Developments in Chile; 24 March 1966: The Road on La Silla dedicated 101 Introduction 101 The Acquisition of the La Silla Territory 103 Building up the Opservatory; First Step: Road and Camps 103 The Problem of the Mining Rights 108 The Building Programme; Early Architectural Planning 109 Progress over the Years 1964-1966 111 Organizational Structure and Employees 113 The ESO Guesthouse 114 Council Meeting and Dedication, March 1966 116 VI. Further Developments in Chile; 25 March 1969: The First Phase Dedicated; The Introduction of National Telescopes 119 The Inauguration 119 Developments on La Silla, 1967-1969 121 The Santiago Headquarters 124 The Vitacura Donation 129 The National Telescopes 130 The First National Telescope: the Bochum 60-cm 130 The Danish 50-cm Telescope 133 The Danish National 1.5-m Telescope; Basic Considerations 133 The Dedications 137 The Dedication Symposium on the Magellanic Clouds 140 VII. The Late 1960 ́s: Structural Changes, First Scientific Activities and Some Soul-Searching; the Journal A & A 141 Introduction 141 Changes in the Directorate 141 Earliest Scientific Activities and the Creation of the SPC 142 The Scientific Programms Committee (SPC) 144 The First Coopérants 150 The Roden Colloquium on Photometry of February 1966 and the Nice Colloquium on Spectroscopy of June 1969 150 The Allocation of Observing Time 151 The SPC and the future: More Telescopes and an ESO Centre? 152 The Proposed New Telescopes 154 Soul-Searching in the Late 1960 ́s 157 The Report of the Working Group 160 Creation of Committee of Council 161 ESO and the Creation of the Journal Astronom y and Astrophysics 161 VIII. The 3.6-m Telescope Project from Concept to the Late 1960 ́s 165 Introduction 165 Basic Concept 165 Early Conferences and Texts 166 The choice and Ordering of the Optics 167 The Mirror Cells 172 Tube and Mounting; Strewinski ́s Pre-Design 173 The Combined Horse-Shoe and Fork Mounting 178 Stagnation- and Growing Impatience 180 The IC Meetings in 1969 181 The Building 184 The Dome 185 Automation in telescope Control 185 IX. the 3.6-m telescope Project Division ESO Collaborates with Cern 187 ESO Approaches CERN 187 Consultation with ESRO 189 The Documents Cou-59 and Cou-60 of December 1969 189 Pursuing the In.House Group Concept: Doc. Cou-66 191 First ESO Committee of Council Meeting, May 6, 1970 195 Council Resolves to Collaborate with CERN 198 September 16, 1970: the ESO-CERN Agreement Signed 200 A Few Further Milestones 203 X. The Schmidt Telescope: Design, Construction, the ESO-SRC Agreement and the Onset of Survey Projects 205 Bernhard Schmidt and Early Developments at Hamburg Observatory 205 Planning the ESO Schmidt 207 Mechanical Engineer and Manufacturer 209 Some Design Features 210 A daring Design, Not Realized 210 The Optics 211 Mechanical Construction and First Tests 211 Heckmann ́s Concern in Retrospect 213 Steps Toward Perfection 216 The Sky Atlas Laboratory 218 The Quick Blue Survey 221 A British Sister for the ESO Schmidt 221 The Hamburg Conference on Schmidt Telescopes 223 The ESO-SCR Agreement 223 The ESO-Uppsala Faint Galaxies Survey 226 XI. Policy, Payments and a bit of Politics 229 Introduction 229 Matters of Policy 230 (A) ESO, A Centre for Research? 230 The Scientific Policy Committee Created 231 A Research-Oriented Group at ESO? 232 The Workshop Proposal 233 A Formal Statement from German Side 238 The Political Aspect 242 The Year 1974: the centre in Sight 242 (B) ESO ́s Geographical Dispersion 243 Extension of Facilities in Chile 243 Moving "Vitacura" to La Serena? 244 The Year 1974: Restructuring in Sight 247 The Financial Story 250 The Pre-Convention Period, 1954-1963 250 About Dollars and Deutschmarks 251 Early Annual Contributions and Project Costs 252 Early Cost Estimates 252 The Post-Convention Years 253 The Annual Contributions from 1964 254 Conflicting Interests and the Bannier Procedure 254 First Post Conventions Years, 1964-1969 256 The Years 1971-76; The TP Division 256 Overall Developments Sinve 1954 257 References and Notes 259 Annexes 270 The ESO Historical Archives (EHA) 271 The Ford Foundation and the European Southern Observatory 273 Meetings of the ESO Committee, 1953-1963 274 Meetings of the Instrumentation Committee, 1961-1974 275 Meetings of Council and Finance Committee, 1964-1969 276 Meetings of Council, Committee of Council and Finance Committee, 1970-1974 277 Meetings of Scientifi Programmes Committee, Observing Programmes Committee and Scientific Policy Committee, 1968-1974 278 Subject Index 279 Name Index 282