User:Computerliteracy

 EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY

Introduction
ESO-Mission  [European Southern Observatory] is a intergovernmental science and technology organization and its web page  caters for the general and professional public.

It is relatively easy to navigate and we can find on the home page top menu bar options such as public, science and user portal, which makes it easy to navigate accordingly your areas of interest.

Web Site and Visual Elements
Primary Observations











 The European Southern Observatory web page seems to have been designed mostly for informational purposes. The subject of study itself would allow any website designer to get into the science fiction mode, but I think they chose to keep it simple in order not to overwhelm the general public. There are so many photos showcased in the page that they kept the idea of a space related website with an image of the universe summarized in a tiny stripe on the top of the home screen

 The initial landing page tries to focus your attention with a main section of large, press-release images that rotate. Even with that element, the site still looks cluttered to me in an attempt to get as much information out to you in the shortest amount of time. It has pictures of the week on the right, most likely to captivate the general public and then a list of announcements below that are designed to disseminate information to scientists and enthusiasts. It appears that 80% of the website contains images or video that work to entertain and inform both the public and scientific community and the other 20% of the site tries to showcase the multinational organization’s facilities and collaboration in a monumental way – effectively playing to the educational and scientific communities interests first.

The website can still be a little overwhelming as it carries so much information and some of the sections are directed for people in the field, so it is natural that some of the language used could be hard to read at times. 

However, the visual elements of the website tell a story alone. Whether you are just visiting or you are a professional. The images strongly speak for themselves and they generate a desire to read more into it in order to understand and discover a totally unknown environment surrounding us.

 Images

 In the image section of the website there is a large, well-organized menu with subsections.





 I found the left menu easy to understand, navigate and their choice of colors ( blue and white) was calming and it relates to the main topic of the site. The font is also simple and it doesn’t disturb the main purpose of search.

<p class="MsoNormal">  Astronomy 

 Galaxies ===== <p class="MsoNormal"> ''' But a different journey on your ESO’s visit starts once you click on its photographs. Then the perspective of the website changes from an informational to an emotional approach. '''

<p class="MsoNormal"> The pictures will catch your attention and most likely bring you into a philosophical state.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Out of sudden all the images we are used to see on fiction movies become part of a reality. Something that exits but its so huge and almost not intelligible that we cant help but to feel so small in face of the vastness out there.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> The Center of the Milky Way 

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<p class="MsoNormal"> This image was one of my selections for the simple fact that it brought me into a different sense of reality. All of us along with everything else that we are aware of are inside and part of this cosmic conglomerate.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Every image has a description on the bottom explaining what it is about and the instrument and technique used to capture it.

<p class="MsoNormal"> It is interesting to note that the visual elements here mean more than shiny dots in the middle of the space. They are not just something that we can look up to the sky to watch. These photos represent years of study and observation with state of art equipment remind us that even though our technology has improved so much we are still far from being able to slightly understand the size and mechanics of the universe above us.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Also, we can find on the right menu different information in regards of the image and the object of study itself. Several versions of the image are also available for download and the original one can also be found.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> Spiral Galaxy 

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<p class="MsoNormal"> This is another mind-blowing image, although we all have seen something similar before. But do we even know what it represents? Where is all this located? Can we relate to the sizes and distances of these little colorful dots displayed on our computer screen?

<p class="MsoNormal"> The description explains how the different colors refer to the age of the stars and points out the side galaxy.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Also the author explains how the image has been modified into a composition. They are three different shots taken at different times from the same point on the universe and put together for best visualization of the shape of that constellation at that specific given time. Note that the constellation in which this galaxy is located is also specified along with its distance and size.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> Antennae Galaxies 

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<p class="MsoNormal"> Here we find another spectacular composite of images. This image shows two galaxies colliding in the Corvus Constellation. This is the result of two different telescopies observations using manipulation of light.

<p class="MsoNormal"> Although the images are manipulated, we understand that it is done in order to a better overview of the bigger picture or a better representation of the reality or at least our perceived reality.

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Facilities

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">The section or category that interested me the most in this website were the images designed to showcase the ESO’s facilities in a romanticized and powerful way – engaging our imagination of what it would be like to work there and make astronomical discoveries. Within this section, I chose the area that highlights photos of their first facility called the La Silla Observatory.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">The La Silla astronomical observatory is located in Chile’s Atacama Desert and in some of the photos they showcase, the facility is romanticized in compositions that sit dark and quiet against an ocean of stars suggest that the observatory is a humble tool used in the greatest human cause ever know – to understand the universe and thus understand ourselves. It’s so powerful, especially for someone who’s lived or traveled to cities his/her whole life and has never seen more than a few stars at a time. It almost leaves you speechless at the thought of “all the things you haven’t experienced yet in this world”.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial">My favorite photo in the entire website is a shot of the observatory’s interior, somehow all lit up in pink – a stark contrast to the view of a clear starry night via the observatory’s opened roof. With this “fisheye” view of the interior putting you right in the middle of a possible discovery taking place there late at night, it makes you feel like you’re in the center of something big. Bigger than your life, your worries, or the world’s worries here on earth. This particular shot is not only inspirational but I can imaging it being even motivational for young students first seeing this and possibly deciding right then and there to make their career based in the sciences and possibly even astronomy.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:5.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">My second favorite photo is a longer-exposed shot of the stars streaking across the sky over La Silla at what appears to be early in the evening. To me, it’s an example of the universe’s perpetual motion in contrast to humanity’s daily time period of slowing down and getting ready for rest. The Milky Way doesn’t sleep, and therefore the unknown discoveries waiting to happen that will enlighten humanity’s understanding of the universe are moving targets that deserve our focus and dedication to uncover them – just like the uncovering of any great mystery. Another motivational image giving the impression that there’s greater meaning out there, we just have to work together to find it. There’s a saying I’ve learned in the real world - “Don’t sweat the small stuff”. When I look at these images it gives you such a larger perspective and leaves you in awe of the all the amazing things we don’t understand yet that it makes our world politics and all the negative things shown in the news today seem so trivial and petty. This website and it’s images are truly inspirational. It makes me wish all the world’s cultures would galvanize a positive and productive understanding of each other and foster more trust to work together for world peace. It seems at times we only work together when we have a common enemy. The ESO - among other organizations - is one that gives me hope that one-day humanity will all work together and lookout for each other like we would as if we were all family. If La Silla finds alien life one day, maybe the world will see we truly are family – at least genetically – and stop “sweating the small stuff”.

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