3.6m Telescope Home Page

Science Operation Department

The ESO 3.6m Telescope

[ ESO 3.6m Telescope]

General Information

The ESO 3.6m Telescope was commissioned in 1977, and completely upgraded in 1999. It has a horseshoe/fork mounting, and an interchangeable top unit allowing the secondary mirror to be changed from a f/8 to a f/35 Cassegrain focus. The pointing error is about 5" RMS. The pointing is limited to 70deg. zenithal distance, and 5.5h HA, but a small region under the pole is reachable.

News and updates

2006-Oct-25 Maintenance of the 3.6m dome is progressing with good results. Science operations is expected to resume on Nov-04.
2006-Oct-05 The dome of the 3.6m enters an extended period of corrective maintenance. Science operations at the 3.6m is temporarily suspended until further notice.
The telescope reaches an image quality better than 0.2" at Zenith.
Main mirror aluminized on September 13th 2005.

Instrumentation
CES EFOSC-2 TIMMI-2 is not offered in Period 78 HARPS

Observing

Telescope Features
	The 3.6m telescope
	Pointing Limits
	Target acquisition
	Tracking and guiding
	Image quality
	Weather limits
	Hatches opening

Projects
	Lateral pads	Ongoing
	M2 upgrade	Completed on 28-08-2004

Internal pages
	3P6 internal pages (ESO access only)