On Thursday, 12 March, Anna Maria Bernini, the Italian Minister of University and Research, travelled to ESO’s Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Her visit included tours of ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and CTAO-South, the CTAO’s telescope array site in the southern hemisphere. She was accompanied by a small delegation that included Valeria Biagiotti, Ambassador of Italy … Continued
On 23 January, AES Andes announced on their website that they have cancelled plans to build the INNA Project, an industrial green hydrogen and green ammonia project planned near the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal Observatory, to focus on their renewable energy portfolio instead. Formal confirmation will arrive once the project is officially withdrawn from Chile’s Environmental … Continued
Paranal, Chile, 17 December 2025 — Representatives from the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and governmental authorities gathered today to celebrate the official groundbreaking of the CTAO’s southern site, CTAO-South. After years of successful site preparations, the event marked the beginning of construction on the telescope foundations, paving the way for … Continued
On 2–3 December, the CTAO Central Organisation’s Telescope team visited the facilities of the Italian company Dal Ben, located in the Veneto region, to conduct the Test Readiness Review (TRR) for the electromechanical structure of the Small-Sized Telescope (SST). After the CTAO SST Collaboration completed the integration of the first SST telescope at the facility, … Continued
The U.S. teams involved in the development of the CTAO have been awarded a $3.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to contribute to building and installing ten cameras for the Small-Sized Telescopes (SSTs). Led by the Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the funds will provide light detectors … Continued
On 2 July, a major contract, worth several million Euros, was signed between the CTAO’s hosting partner, ESO (European Southern Observatory), and a consortium of Chilean companies for the construction of roads and telescope foundations for the CTAO’s southern hemisphere array (CTAO-South), which is located near ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The contract, signed on … Continued
In January, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) publicly raised the alarm about the threat that the industrial megaproject INNA posed to the world’s darkest and clearest skies for astronomy, those of ESO’s Paranal Observatory and the site of the CTAO’s southern hemisphere array (CTAO-South). The project — by AES Andes, a subsidiary of the U.S. … Continued
Bologna, Italy – On Thursday, 18 April, during the closing session of the CTAO Science Symposium at Teatro Duse in Bologna, the Managing Director of the CTAO, Dr. Stuart McMuldroch, officially announced the Observatory’s new phase of growth. Supported by the 30M Euro endorsement by the CTAO’s governing bodies in September 2023, this new period … Continued
On 6 September 2023, the CTAO’s two governing bodies, the Board of Governmental Representatives (BGR) and the CTAO gGmbH Council, gathered to agree on the significant forthcoming measures to advance the Observatory to its construction phase. During the meeting, both bodies unanimously certified their commitment to the progress of the CTAO, including a foreseen endorsement of up to approximately 30 million euro for 2024. This represents a significant increase in annual funding, which will enable the Observatory to not only move forward with substantial infrastructure development but also to double its workforce.
On February 15, the SST underwent the Product Review, which examined the implementation of actions towards the industrialization of the telescope and the optimization of the maintenance activities.