Many congratulations to Jim Emerson and Will Sutherland on the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) handover to the European Southern Observatory in December.
Press releases and the first of many stunning images from what becomes the world's largest survey telescope can be found at
European Southern Observatory press release(link is external)
Queen Mary press release(link is external)
Science and Technology Facilities Council press release(link is external)
The hidden fires of the flame nebula (image)(link is external)
BBC News Report(link is external)
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On behalf of everybody in the Astronomy Unit I would like to congratulate Jim Emerson (PI) and Will Sutherland (Project Scientist) on the hand over of VISTA to ESO. They have made vital contributions over the many years of this project, and their work will be appreciated by all of the UK Astronomy community.Not only will VISTA be an excellent telescope for future science - and we all look forward to seeing its results - but it also represents the completion of part payment-in-kind for the UK's membership of ESO.David BurgessDirector, Astronomy Unit