Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2019

17 SPACE CHRONICLES T he visitors ranged from local school chil- dren to international tourists, brought together to view the unusual and spectacular event at one of the world’s leading as- tronomical observatories. [ESO/Romain Lucchesi] fect view of the solar eclipse.” Joining the many visitors at La Silla was the President of the Republic of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, who was welcomed by ESO’s Director General, Xavier Barcons. “We are delighted that the President chose to join us at La Silla on this very special day,” said Xavier Barcons. “The eclipse hap- pened on the 50 th anniversary of La Silla, an occasion to celebrate the strong and productive partnership between Chile and ESO. La Silla has played an extremely important role in the development of astronomy in Europe and Chile, and Chilean as- tronomers routinely use telescopes in La Silla for their scientific re- search.” La Silla has been an ESO stronghold since the 1960s. Here, ESO operates two of the most productive 4-metre- class telescopes in the world. The 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) broke new ground in telescope engineering and design and was the first in the world to have a computer-controlled main mirror (active optics), technology de- veloped at ESO and now applied to