- La Silla, Chile
- altitude: 2375 m
- dome: classic
- design: Cassegrain (f/14.9)
- diameter (primary, M1): 1,52 m
- diameter (secondary, M2): 0,43 m
- material M1 i M2: borosilicate
- mount: English, yoke
The ESO telescope with a diameter of 1.52 meters (E152) was built as ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile as a twin to an equally large telescope working at the Observatoire de Haute Provence in France. It saw first light on July 7, 1968. From the beginning, it was designed as a spectroscopic instrument and was gradually equipped with several spectrographs (…, B&C, FEROS). The telescope was officially decommissioned at the end of 2002. See some historic details at ESO official web page – ESO 1.52-metre telescope.
The telescope was put back into operation after reconstruction following almost 20 years of downtime in 2022 as part of the Czech-led international PlatoSpec project. The reconstruction was carried out by ProjectSoft HK a.s.
The telescope was equipped with a new Pucheros+ spectrograph (Antonucci L. et al., 2025), by the Chilean partners of the project, Pucheros+ was replaced in 2024 by a more powerful PlatoSpec instrument (Žák J. et al., 2025).
The modernized telescope with the new spectrograph is designed for complete remote operation and will primarily be used to research exoplanets, eruptive and variable stars as part of ground support for European Space Agency ESA (PLATO and later ARIEL) space missions.