Very sharp images with the ESO NTT at "first light''

Very sharp images with the ESO NTT at `"first light''. On the night of "first light'' for the ESO New Technology Telescope on La Silla (March 22 - 23, 1989), its excellent performance was impressively demonstrated. The "seeing'' (smearing of the stellar images due to atmospheric turbulence) was about the best ever recorded with a ground-based optical telescope; it varied between 0.36 and 0.50 arcseconds. The CCD images were immediately transmitted by satellite link to the ESO Headquarters in Garching.