Europe's Quest for the Universe - Laboratoires de Recherche

30 Europe’s quest for the Universe
quality as a result of this awkward aerodynamical shape led to its abandonment
6) ; undoubtedly this also reduced costs. Because of the high cost of
the coudé spectrograph, it had been decided to construct next to the 3.6-m
telescope a 1.4-m Coudé Auxiliary Telescope (CAT). During the time that the
large telescope would be used for other purposes, the CAT would allow the
spectrograph to be used for the observation of brighter stars. The coudé focus
also had a major impact on the telescope design with three large flat mirrors,
needed to bring the light from the moving telescope to the stationary focus.
By the time the 3.6-m telescope was completed, classical coudé spectrographs
were being abandoned in many observatories since more compact and
efficient Cassegrain instruments had been developed. In fact, only two of the
three flats have been installed in the telescope and the classical coudé focus
has never been implemented.
When I came to ESO in 1975, it was evident that there was no real
plan to effectively use the 3.6-m telescope for contemporary science. There
also would be no suitable instrumentation to attach to the telescope. All of
this reflected the absence of any scientific identity of ESO. In particular the
French had been insisting that ESO be an “Observatoire de mission” with
only the staff needed to run the telescopes. Instrumentation would be decided
by an Instrumentation Committee and built largely in the national institutes,
while scientists residing in their home institutes would decide what programs
to execute. This approach was inadequate in giving the instrumentation the
necessary coherence and realism. In December 1972 my predecessor,
Adriaan Blaauw, had tried to get the ESO Council to agree to the creation of
a small “scientific group” in Geneva, which I would be heading. Instead,
Council offered a visiting appointment to discuss with the member countries
the instrumentation issues. This did not seem a particularly attractive job.
The issue came again to the fore in 1974 when a new Director General
had to be found. Council had begun to realize that things were not going well
and so became more receptive to a change of policy. Still a long period of
wrangling followed which lasted more than a year. This began when I was
to be appointed. I had made the creation of an in-house scientific group a
condition for taking the position. Council met in closed session to discuss
the appointment and was expected to come to a rapid conclusion, but for
several hours nothing happened. Inside the meeting room, however, the
situation was dramatic. The French President had received the agreed view
of Council as to what he would tell me. At some moment during this process,
he felt that his honor had been questioned by the German Vice-President.
In true gallic tradition he resigned as President. The Vice-President automatically
became President, but immediately also resigned. Since some
decision had to be taken, J.H. Bannier as the most senior member of Council
assumed the presidency, and finally the appointment was made in a provisional
way. Several weeks later three Dutchmen: the Director General
A. Blaauw, the interim President J.H. Bannier and I met to see how to