A new data release of science products resulting from the ESO/VST Public Survey VPHAS+ is now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface at the ESO Science Archive Facility.

High-quality echelle spectra of a homogeneous sample of 100 QSOs with redshifts between 3.5 and 4.5, covering the spectral range from 315 to 2500 nm, have been obtained in the course of the ESO observing program 'Quasars and their absorption lines: a legacy survey of the high-redshift universe with VLT/XSHOOTER', lead by PI Sebastien Lopez (program code 189.A-0424). This data set represents the largest spectroscopic survey of high-redshift QSOs with simultaneous rest-frame UV/optical coverage to date, thus enabling a wide range of research topics including the intergalactic medium, active galactic nuclei and cosmological studies.

All spectra obtained with the Integral Field Unit, Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, MUSE, in the wide field mode, from November 2014 till May 2015 are now published via the ESO archive as reduced data. The MUSE 3D science data cubes¹ have their instrumental signature removed, and are astrometrically calibrated, sky- subtracted, wavelength and flux calibrated, using the MUSE pipeline, version muse-1.4 and higher. The data format is a three dimensional FITS image, with two spatial and one spectral axis in the first extension; see the ESO science data products standard (in particular the addendum dedicated to cubes) for a description of the data format and metadata information. Their wavelength scale is in the heliocentric reference system. All 3D data cubes come with error estimates (in the second extension) and a limiting magnitude estimated as 5σ limiting AB magnitude, in terms of the total flux of an unresolved source (i.e. point source). There are a number of files associated at download time to each 3D data cube, the broad – band image, also known as “ white – light ” image, plus graphical (preview) files and the complete pipeline log. The MUSE data collection will grow with time, with new reduced 3D data cubes being added as soon as they are processed. MUSE 3D cubes spectra acquired before November 2014 will also soon be added to the collection.

This release provides reduced Ks-band mosaics of the Hubble Frontier Fields obtained with the High Acuity Wide field K-band Imager (HAWK-I) at the ESO VLT 8.2-meter Unit Telescope. The first two fields, Abell 2744 and MACS-0416, were observed with HAWK-I on UT4 in P92 and the second two fields, Abell S1063 and Abell 370, were observed in P95 (PI: Gabriel Brammer).

New release of UltraVISTA Public Survey data via the ESO Science Archive Facility UltraVISTA is an ultra-deep near-infrared survey of the central region of the COSMOS field. This third UltraVISTA data release comprises stacked images in YJHKs and NB118 narrow-band filters together with a five-band merged catalogue. The principal difference with respect to the DR2 release is a substantial increase in exposure time in all five bands (by a factor of 1.7-4.6) in the four "ultra-deep stripes" regions, corresponding to an increase in depth of 0.4 to 0.8 magnitudes.

The first commissioning run of the HARPS Laser Frequency Comb (LFC) was held from 8 – 17 April 2015. The HARPS LFC is described in a Messenger article (Lo Curto et al. 2012). During this commissioning, the emphasis was mainly on calibration but several science spectra were acquired: four asteroids and twenty stars were repeatedly observed to monitor their radial velocity variations and to compare with published data.

The APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) is an imaging survey covering 420 sq. deg of the inner Galactic plane at a wavelength of 870μm. The observations were carried out between 2007 and 2010, using the LABOCA bolometer array at the APEX telescope. The current release consists of emission maps covering the full area surveyed, split in 3x3 sq. deg tiles. The noise level reached is typically 60 mJy/beam, with an angular resolution of 19''. An other set of images, in which the LABOCA data have been combined with observations from the Planck satellite, in order to recover the most spatially extended emission, is also available. In addition to the source catalogues associated to each image, a compact source catalogue extracted in a different way is provided and searchable via the ESO Catalogue Facility.

Since Sept 2015, SPHERE ZIMPOL calibrations (flats, modulation calibrations, and pinhole images) suffer from the following issue: the first plane(s) of the raw frame data cube can show no or less counts from the lamp than the remaining planes of the cube.

zCOSMOS (PI: Simon Lilly, ESO Large Programme 175.A-0839) is a large redshift survey undertaken in the COSMOS field using the VIMOS spectrograph. About 600 hours were awarded to this large programme, which was executed between 2005 and 2010.

The issue with the GIRAFFE Medusa2^(*) calibration data reported on January 11, 2016, is fixed for most of the science data taken after 2015-11-27. All master calibrations delivered through the calSelector raw2master mode can be used for science processing.