Celebration of the VLTI vision realisation

Celebration Session of the 1985 ESO VLTI Interim Report and the ESO Interferometry Group Visionaries

In October 1985, the  “Aperture Synthesis (Spatial Interferometry) with the Very Large Telescope” (VLT Report No. 42) was published. It was followed a year later by the“Interferometric imaging with the Very Large Telescope” (VLT Report No.49). In 1987, the “Proposal for the construction of the 16-M Very Large Telescope” was written with a special section on optical interferometry. Finally, a “VLT Interferometer implementation plan” (VLT Report No. 59a) presents a detailed plan.

In “The Early Days of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer” (2007) by Pierre Léna, a recollection of some events is presented.

As early as 1985, the vision of an optical interferometer fed by adaptive optics using laser guide stars was already present. In 2025, the commissioning of such a system will start. This session will celebrate the vision and ambition of the scientists behind the founding documents that shaped the VLTI.

Confirmed invited speakers/attendants

Antoine Labeyrie, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Antoine Mérand, European Southern Observatory

Fabienne Casoli, Paris Observatory-PSL

Fritz Merkle, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Gerd Weigelt, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Guy Perrin, Paris Observatory-PSL

Jan Noordam, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Laurent Koechlin, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Michel Faucherre, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Pierre Léna, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Reinhard Genzel, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Stéphane Guilloteau, ESO Interferometry Working Group

Steve Ridgeway, NoirLab, Tucson

Thomas Henning, European Interferometry Initiative Founding President

Xavier Barcons, European Southern Observatory