The ESO research studentship programme provides an outstanding opportunity for PhD students to experience the exciting scientific environment at one of the world's leading observatories. ESO's studentship positions are open to students enrolled in a university PhD programme in astronomy or related fields. Students accepted into the programme work on their doctoral project under the formal supervision of their home university supervisor, but they come to ESO to work and study under the co-supervision of an ESO staff astronomer for a period of between six months and two years.

The Call for Proposals for Period 112 is out, and a short session will be offered to present the material you will need to write a proposal for the La Silla Paranal Observatory. This session will take place online Friday 3 March 2023 at 12 CET, using the MS Teams platform.

The Call for Proposals for observations at ESO telescopes in Period 112 (1 October 2023 - 31 March 2024) has been released. Please consult the Period 112 document for the main news items and policies related to applying for time on ESO telescopes. All technical information about the offered instruments and facilities is contained on ESO web pages that are linked from the Call. The proposal submission deadline is 12:00 CEST 28 March 2023.

Olivier Chesneau, one of the most active and prolific members of the optical interferometry community, passed away in May 2014, at the age of 41. To honour his work in this field, his home institute, the Laboratoire J.-L. Lagrange at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in France, and ESO established a prize in his memory. Since 2015, the prize has been awarded biennially for the best PhD thesis completed in the field of high angular resolution optical astronomy.

The Call for Proposals for Period 112 is out, and a short session will be offered to present the material you will need to write a proposal for the La Silla Paranal Observatory. This session will take place online Friday 3 March 2023 at 12 CET, using the MS Teams platform.

A substantial fraction of cosmic star formation happens in star clusters, and binary populations residing in extreme cluster environments are fundamentally different from those in galactic fields. Each binary in a star cluster will evolve through a multitude of interactions with other cluster members. A better understanding of this evolution is required to answer some of the most pressing questions in modern astrophysics, from the origin of black-hole mergers to the characterization of galaxies in the early Universe. Historically, star clusters have always been cornerstones for our knowledge of stellar evolution. With this workshop, we aim to continue this legacy by establishing them as cosmic probes for binary studies. The workshop intersects four main fields of modern astrophysics: star formation, stellar and binary evolution, star clusters and their dynamics, and gravitational wave astronomy. With this scientific overlap, the workshop wants to bring scientists of all of these fields together and facilitate the scientific exchange that will lead to new insights and scientific breakthroughs.

Doppler shifts precision and accuracy are the traditional aspects of spectral fidelity, but there are many others, such as: how well are the spectra characterized for noise, scattered light, detector effects, instrumental profile? What are abundance realistic uncertainties? Is precision enough or is accuracy required? Which are the limits of precise and accurate spectroscopy and which exciting science will new performances enable? Which science require spectral fidelity and how can we enable it? What is its present status and future perspective? With the installation of HARPS at the 3.6m telescope in La Silla 20 years ago, ESO community has a central role in this research. HARPS has been transformational, paving the way to the new generations of planet hunters. The aim of the conference is to discuss all the above topics, with a view to the long heritage of HARPS, the first 5 years of operations of ESPRESSO, the new results from NIR spectrographs, and future spectrographs such as ANDES at the ELTs.

The User Support Department again extends its sincere thanks to all those Principal Investigators and their Phase 2 delegates who filled this year's online Paranal Service Mode User Satisfaction Survey.  A total of 150 responses were received from the targeted campaign. As in the past, where possible, respondents who provided detailed comments have been contacted via e-mail.  A summary report based on this latest User Satisfaction Survey is now available.

Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) is a survey (programme 198.A-2008, PI M. Nonino) belonging to the second cycle of ESO VISTA Public Surveys. It is aimed at observing 20 massive galaxy clusters in the infrared Y, J, and Ks bands. Those clusters have also been observed in many ground- and space-based programmes (e.g. CLASH, RELICS, HFF/ BUFFALO). The survey will mainly explore galaxy evolution over a wide, and still largely unexplored, diversity of cluster environments. 

This is the first data release, DR1 of the IFS deep cube obtained in the MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF) as part of the Large Programme ID 1100.A-0528, PI M. Fumagalli.