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GV Telescope being operated
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CU Svend-Lausten speaking (SHOTS OF TELESCOPE OVER INTERVIEW) (9 shots)
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TRANSCRIPT: SEQ. 2: MR. SVEND-LAUSTEN: "This organisation, an international organisation, has been set up by six European countries. These are France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Sweden and Denmark. And the aim of this organisation has been and is to establish in the Southern Hemisphere an observatory for observations of the southern sky. The telescope will be installed in Chile in a place in the mountains called La Silla, which is the pre-Andes in the southern part of the Atacama Desert, about 600 kilometres north of Santiago. It has to be said that E.S.O. already is running an observatory on that site with quite a number of small and medium-sized telescopes. This telescope, the 3.6 metre telescope, is not the main telescope for the observatory which will be installed next year."



This huge telescope in this factory near Lyons in France, will be erected on a mountain in Chile. It has been built to enable Europeans to study the galaxy from the Southern Hemisphere. The telescope was commissioned by the European Southern Observatory, a part of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. The telescope is eighteen metres in height and has a big reflector of three-point-six metres. E.S.O. scientists Mr. Svend-Lausten described the organisation and the future of the telescope.




Initials BB/2330 AMN/MR/BB/2340


This film includes an interview with scientists, Mr. Svend-Lausten which is transcribed below.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A French company has built a huge reflector telescope to enable Europeans to study the galaxy from a mountain in Chile.

The firm, Creusot-Loire, has dug a deep hole in one of its factory workshops to accommodate the 18-metre (54 feet) structure, which was commissioned by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

The E.S.O., which is made up of scientists from six European countries, ordered the telescope to observe the southern skies. These have mainly been ignored by astronomers, whose studies have traditionally been confined mainly to the Northern Hemisphere.

The telescope will be transported to Chile next year and erected on a mountain in the Atacama Desert called La Silla. This is some 600 kilometres (260 miles) north of Santiago.

There, the telescope will eventually be able to observe the galaxy from 2,400 metres (7,800 feet) through clear skies. On the mountain, free from industrial pollution and interference from sources of artificial light the telescope will join others installed there by E.S.O. since 1965.