The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) is a 2.6-m ESO telescope at Cerro Paranal equipped with OmegaCAM, a 268-megapixel camera covering a 1°×1° field of view. CASU contributed to data processing for VST public surveys including KiDS, VST ATLAS and VPHAS+.
The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) is the largest telescope in the world designed for surveying the sky in visible light. This 2.6-m ESO telescope is located at Cerro Paranal Observatory in Chile and is equipped with OmegaCAM — an enormous 268-megapixel camera with a total field of view of 1° × 1°, twice as broad as the full Moon.
The VST was conceived to support the VLT with wide-angle optical imaging, detecting and pre-characterising sources for follow-up spectroscopic observations with the VLT Unit Telescopes. It was dedicated to survey programmes including:
- KiDS — Kilo-Degree Survey, a weak gravitational lensing survey
- VST ATLAS — A large area photometric survey of the Southern sky
- VPHAS+ — VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane
Instrument Characteristics
| Camera | OmegaCAM — 32 CCDs, 268 megapixels |
|---|---|
| Telescope | 2.6-m primary mirror (Ritchie-Chrétien) |
| Pixel Scale | 0.21″/pixel |
| Field of View | 1° × 1° (≈ twice the diameter of the full Moon) |
| Location | ESO Cerro Paranal Observatory, Chile |
CASU Involvement
CASU contributed expertise in optical survey data processing to the VST pipeline development and quality control, building on decades of experience with wide-field optical and infrared imaging surveys using the Isaac Newton Telescope and other instruments.
