Public Image and Video Archives

Welcome to the ESO Public Image and Video Archives! Below you will find a overview of what you can find in the ESO Public Image Archive.

ESO Public Image Archive

The ESO Public Image Archive contains selected astronomical photos with sufficient image resolution for professional reproduction, photos of the various ESO facilities, of people and events, as well as other interesting material.

Most of the recent "Astronomical" type objects have been obtained with the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal. However, the Image Archive also astronomical images obtained with other ESO telescopes and instruments, e.g. the Wide-Field Imager (WFI) and the SOFI infrared multi-mode instrument at La Silla. Using the Advanced Search the user can search for Telescope and Instrument that were used to observe the object(s).

The Archive includes a nice collection of pictures of the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal that have been selected from the available ESO Press Releases Photos, together with pictures have not been published elsewhere. They show some of the main installations (telescopes, instruments, buildings) at this remote site. Pictures of the ESO Telescopes and instrumentation on La Silla, e.g. the New Technology Telescope (NTT) and 3.6 meter Telescope, are also available.

Pictures of ESO's Headquarters in Garching bei München and its premises in Santiago de Chile, as well as pictures of the La Silla and Paranal sites are included. Images of the Chajnantor area are also available. This is the site for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observatory. It is located at 5000 metres altitude in the Chilean Andes mountains, some 60 km east of the village of San Pedro de Atacama.

The ESO Public Image Archive has recently been installed. New images, for example those that are related to ESO Press Releases will be included soon after they become available. Older digital images will be included at regular intervals. Important pictures that in the ESO Historical Archives and for which only paper copies exist will be scanned with the best possible resolution and included.

ESO Public Video Archive

ESO video material is available via the ESO Video Archive page.

Copyright Information

ESO still and motion pictures as well as ESO broadcast material are Copyright (c) ESO. Comprehensive information about the usage this material can be found in the Copyright Notice page. For questions related to the usage of ESO material please contact the education and Public Outreach Department.