Europe's Quest for The Universe

Parts of this book were written while "chercheur associé" at the Observatoire de Haute Provence ; I thank the directors Philippe Véron, Antoine Labeyrie, Jean-Pierre Sivan and Michel Boër, as well as Mira Véron-Cetty, for their support. Other parts were written while "Rossi Fellow" at the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, and I thank the directors Franco Pacini and Marco Salvati, as well as the chairman of the Astronomy Department Claudio Chiuderi for their support. Some sections were written during visits to the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, and I thank the directors

The progress of science depends on the technological development of its instrumentation. This is particularly true for the astronomical sciences where the study of remote objects requires sophisticated and costly detection techniques. In this book I shall analyze some of the large European astronomical projects, both on the ground and in space, their development during the last two decades, and their prospects in the future. While scientific progress is intimately related to technology development, both are contingent on professionals and funding, and I shall consider the situation with regard to both of these.

This book is addressed to a varied audience: scientists who wish to see what is happening outside their own domain, students who look for fruitful areas of thesis research, functionaries who need some background for decision making, amateur astronomers interested in knowing what is going on in the profession, and also to an educated public that wants to get the flavor of what is behind the newspaper articles reporting scientific results and to know how European activities compare to what is being done elsewhere. The more detailed description of the development of the VLT, ESO's Very Large Telescope, illustrates how a large technological project gets underway and after some pitfalls reaches completion.