AGM plus Members’ meeting

Engineering challenges, desert experiences and telescope tendencies from Chile’s world beating Paranal Observatory
A talk by Bryan Little.

Bryan’s talk draws on his personal experiences and looks at a few of the logistical, engineering, systems and cultural challenges that were encountered along the path to a successful acceptance and handover of the facility to local engineering and astronomy staff. Bryan will also give a brief update on current and future tendencies for ground based astronomy for Paranal and in Chile more generally.

Now a freelance engineering project manager Bryan was a staff project engineer and manager at the UK’s Astronomy Technology Centre (Royal Observatory Edinburgh) during the design and build of the UK’s VISTA Telescope (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy).