›#MeetESO

How does a trip to see the world’s most advanced telescopes sound? How about travelling to the most arid desert in the world and climbing up to 5,000 metres? Sleeping where James Bond did? Seeing the best night sky in the world? Visiting the control room from where some of the biggest scientific discoveries are made? Observing the planet Mercury as it passes in front of the Sun?

All of that is now part of a single event. Eight keen social media users with a passion for astronomy, will participate in ESO’s first social media gathering. The event will take place between 7 and 12 May 2016, at ESO’s observatories in the Atacama Desert, Chile.

The social media reps will visit ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the largest ground-based astronomical project in existence. They will witness the transit of Mercury, a phenomenon that happens every few years. They will meet the people working at ESO and ALMA, see where they work and how they live in the most arid desert in the world or high up on the Chajnantor Plateau, at 5000 metres above sea level.They will report their adventure live through hashtag #MeetESO

Unlike other tweetups, only eight people take part in the #MeetESO social media gathering, for several reasons:

- Astronomers go to remote places in order to take their observations in good conditions and without being disturbed. They have to make sure their outreach activities do not interfere with observing runs.
- They will be travelling to the most arid place on Earth, in the Atacama Desert, where there are limited resources for accommodation.