Concept and status of the VLT project

The ESO Very Large Telescope project consists of an array of four 8-m telescopes. This concept presents a very great flexibility and covers a broad range of scientific applications. The most far reaching one is the co-phasing of the four telescopes which will open the way to very high resolution imaging.The funding has been granted in December 1987. The first telescope is scheduled for 1995. The whole array is expected to be completed by the 2000.Paper presented at the Symposium on the JNLT and Related Engineering Developments, Tokyo, November 29–December 2, 1988.