What was the process leading up to the decision for the E-ELT site and who took the final decision?
The independent E-ELT Site Selection Advisory Committee (SSAC) has been analysing in great detail results from several possible sites worldwide. Similar efforts have been carried out by the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) site selection team from the US. For the sake of efficiency, the sites pre-selected by the TMT team (all in North and South America) were not studied by the SSAC, as the TMT team shared their data with the SSAC. The SSAC drew up a short list comprising four sites in Chile and one in the Canary Islands, Spain. Two of the sites on the SSAC short list, including Armazones, were on the TMT list. On 2–3 March 2010, the E-ELT Site Selection Advisory Committee presented their report to the ESO Council, confirming that all the sites examined in the final shortlist have very good conditions for astronomical observing, each one with its particular strengths. The technical report concluded that Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, stands out as the clearly preferred site, because it has
