Membership in the organization "opens for the Czech astronomers completely new opportunities and possibilities," Miroslava Kopicova, minister of Education, Youth and Sports, said in a news release. "It will foster this discipline on the highest quality level and open new opportunities for the Czech industry to actively cooperate in research and development of high tech instruments for astronomical research."

The ESO welcomed the Czech Republic with its tradition in astronomy, said Catherine Cesarsky, ESO director general.

The Czech Republic is the 13th member of ESO, officially the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. Czech astronomers are active in fields such as solar and stellar physics, as well as the study of interstellar matter, galaxies and planetary systems, ESO said.