Up to 5% of the available general observing time may be used for Director's Discretionary Time Proposals (DDTs).

A DDT proposal must necessarily belong to one of the following categories:

• proposals of ToO nature requiring the immediate observation of a sudden and unexpected
  astronomical event (clearly indicate the urgency using the 'Special Remarks' box),

• proposals requesting observations on a hot and highly competitive scientific topic,

• proposals asking for follow-up observations of a programme recently conducted from ground-based and/or space facilities, where a quick implementation should provide break-through results,

• proposals of a somewhat risky nature requesting a small amount of observing time to test the feasibility of a programme.

Approved DDT proposals are carried out in Service Mode on Paranal or in Visitor Mode override on La Silla. Proposers can view the schedule of the observatory using this link. In particular, service mode slots for a particular telescope can be identified  by selecting 'Service Slots' under 'Observing Mode' as well as the relevant telescope. A graphical interface to the telescope schedule can be accessed at this link.

Very few non-time-critical DDT proposals are foreseen to be approved. Therefore proposers should provide a very clear justification (using the 'DDT Justification' box, section 'Remarks & Justifications') why the programme should be considered for DDT allocation and was not submitted through the normal OPC procedure. In the absence of such a justification, the proposal will not be considered for DDT allocation, and the proposers will be encouraged to resubmit their proposals for the next appropriate OPC submission deadline.

DDT proposals may be submitted at any time using the web based p1 interface (described here). Like all other proposals submitted to ESO, as of P108 DDT proposals must follow the anonymisation guidelines.  Failure to abide by the anonymisation rules may lead to the disqualification of the proposal.

Please note that you and all  your Co-investigators require an ESO User Portal account in order to submit proposals. You can create an account using the following link:

In the 'Special Remarks' box applicants have to indicate whether the proposed DDT observations were already submitted in a proposal to the OPC. If yes, the respective proposal number has to be indicated.

Normally, DDT proposals will be reviewed by the Director's Discretionary Time Committee (DDTC). Once received and validated, a copy of the proposal will automatically be forwarded to the Director of the La Silla and Paranal Observatory who, in exceptional cases where a proper review by the DDTC would delay time-critical, urgent observations, may decide to carry out the observations prior to a DDTC review. Such urgent requests must be clearly identified in the 'Special Remarks' box.