First major instrument mounted on VLT

17 Jun 2002

The first major astronomical instrument was mounted on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (Paranal, Chile). FORS1, which was assembled in the instrument area at the Paranal Base Camp before being transported to the buliding and hosted to the azimuth platform, moved under the Cassegrain focus, and lifted and bolted to the flange inside the main mirror cell, is designed to obtain images and spectra in the visual spectral region of the faintest possible objects.