Peekaboo

The telescope peeking out from its dome is the 1.52-metre telescope at La Silla Observatory. Being over 55 years old, the 1.52-metre is one of the oldest telescopes at ESO and it has participated in laying the foundation for many areas of astronomical research.

Being a special telescope in many ways, it also has a twin, the 1.52-metre telescope at the Observatoire de Haute Provence in France. Both telescopes were specifically designed to do stellar spectroscopy and astrophotography, and the 1.52-m in La Silla involved no less than five instruments, including the B&C spectrograph. This instrument captured the spectrum of the Hale-Bopp comet as it passed by in 1995, one of the first recorded spectrums of a comet.

After over 30 years of service, the 1.52-m at La Silla was decommissioned in 2002. Still sitting in its dome, it peers out over the vast Atacama Desert, and we get to marvel about all the things it has seen in the night sky.