La Silla Phase2 tool (P2ls), how to delegate an observing run, NSTS

We expect our users to use the web-based La Silla P2 tool (www.eso.org/p2ls) to prepare their visitor mode observations. This is the standard ESO way of operating an instrument: Observing Blocks (OBs) are prepared from instrument-specific templates with the P2 tool before the observations. These OBs are automatically transferred to La Silla and can be loaded from the tool vOT, which is installed on the visitor's machine.

==> If a PI wishs to grant access to her/his OBs to another observer, then the PI should login into her/his ESO account via the ESO User Portal. When clicking on 'Delegate Phase 2 tasks', a new window will open. There, the run to be delegated can be selected and the email address of the ESO account associated with the observer can be specified. To delegate the run, the box 'Phase 2' must be ticked. Now the observer will be able to see, edit and execute the delegated OBs from the ESO account associated with her/him. Please note that delegating your run to another person / ESO account will not change the ID of the observing run.

Exposure Time Calculator

An Exposure Time Calculator (ETC) is available. It is modelled after the UVES ETC but uses the efficiencies relevant for HARPS (atmosphere, Cassegrain telescope, seeing, "slit loss", instrument optics (including fibre link), CCD). 

Observing with HARPS: which TARGETS?

Users applying for time on HARPS should consult the following page to check for possible restricions on the allowed targets: Guaranteed Time Observations policies.

Radial velocity standards

Radial Velocity (RV) standard stars are available here. (for details see Udry et al. 1999).
Care has to be taken on the definition of "standard". What has been found to be a RV "standard" by an instrument with a low RV accuracy is not necessarily a "standard" anymore when measured by an instrument of much superior RV accuracy. We hope in few more periods to get a growing list of "HARPS RV standards".

Other RV standards we use for our calibration plan are:

Spectro-photometric standard stars

List of spectrophotometric standard stars

Extinction coefficients for La Silla

Extinction coefficients for La Silla can be found here

Thorium-Argon Atlas

High resolution Thorium-Argon Atlases are available for

• UVES
• CES-blue
• CES-red

Almanach, airmass, other tools

Almanach, airmass plots, and other tools are available from this page