Chilean President visits Paranal to announce the transfer of the land for the E-ELT

At a ceremony held on 27 October 2013 at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Chilean Atacama Desert the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, handed over the recently signed legal documents by which the Chilean government will transfer the land around Cerro Armazones to ESO. Cerro Armazones, a 3046-metre peak 20 kilometres from the site of ESO’s Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal, will be the future home of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

Pictured here, in the front row from the left are Uelli Weilenman (Deputy Director, La Silla Paranal Observatory), Alfredo Moreno (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Tim de Zeeuw (ESO Director General), Sebastián Piñera (President of Chile), Waldo Mora (Governor of the II Region) and Mateo Budinich (President of CONICYT).

Standing in the back row, from left to right, are Fernando Comeron (ESO Representative to Chile), Juan Carlos Bulnes (Undersecretary of National Assets) and Mónica Rubio (Astronomy Advisor to CONICYT).