La Silla Observing School (2025)
Santiago and La Silla Observatory, Chile, February 10 - 21, 2025
ESO is happy to announce the next La Silla Observing School, which will be held at the ESO premises in Santiago de Chile and at the La Silla Observatory, from Monday February 10th to Friday February 21st.
During two weeks of intense work the participants will have a hands-on real-life experience on the full cycle from observation planning, observing with professional 3-4 meter telescopes and the data reduction & analysis afterwards. All this will be done with the help of experienced tutors who will guide the students through science projects. (The science projects will be defined by the tutors.)
The school is primarily meant for PhD students in Astronomy who have little or no observing experience with professional telescopes. MSc students in the late stages of their thesis work will also be considered.
The school will be free for the students. ESO will cover lodging from Sunday February 9th afternoon until Saturday 22nd morning in Santiago and at the La Silla Observatory. In addition, ESO will cover the travel from Santiago to La Silla and back, for breakfast and lunch in Santiago during the school, and for all meals (full board) at the La Silla Observatory. The students, however, are expected to pay for their travel to Santiago (and back home) as well as for dinner during their stay in Santiago.
We ask potential applicants to clarify the funding situation with their supervisors before applying to the school. ESO has a very limited budget for the organization of the school, thus financial support (up to a few hundred EUR) may be offered in exceptional and well-justified cases only. Requests for financial support will be collected at the registration, and they do not have any influence on the selection process. In any case, ESO will not commit to any financial support before the selection of the students has finished.
How to apply:
Registration is open and will close on September 30th, end of the day.
As we usually receive many applications for the La Silla Observing School, it is very important that the applicants motivate their application well and also have a recommendation letter sent (preferrably in pdf-format) by their advisor to ls25_school@eso.org before the registration deadline, indicating clearly the family name of the applicant. Applications without a reference letter will not be considered in the selection process.
Working language is English.
Important dates:
- Registration deadline: September 30th, 2024.
- Announcement of the selected students: end of October.
- Arrival to Santiago de Chile: February 9th, 2025, at the latest.
LOC: F. Rodler, P. Jirón, L. Kiefer & the La Silla Logistics Team
Write to us in case of questions: ls25_school@eso.org
Organizer: ESO
