Due to the evolving situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in Chile, all ESO observatories continue in a  safe state with no science operations taking place. Visitor mode runs until September 10 have been cancelled. Users have been informed individually by ESO.

ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 7-8 September 2020

ESO will organise the second edition of the La Silla Paranal Users Workshop as a series of online events, the first of which will take place in early September. If you are a La Silla Paranal Observatory user and are interested in the most up-to-date information, learning how to use the ESO Science Archive Facility, reducing ESO data or "face-to-face" contact with ESO experts working on various support services, this first instalment of the workshop is for you.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the lives of ALMA staff and users around the world. Although in some of the ALMA regions the situation is slowly improving, in other regions, including Chile, the evolution of the outbreak remains highly uncertain. Because of the on-going situation in Chile, ALMA operations unfortunately remain suspended. ALMA staff continue to monitor the situation very carefully and work on the development of detailed plans for the return to operations, which will be initiated when the situation allows. ALMA will keep updating the user community on the developments.

The APEX website has been renewed and improved in various areas. Some of the most remarkable updates are related to information about the recently upgraded telescope and new instrumentation available and the procedures to follow in order to apply for telescope time in the different queues. Also several tools, at the service of researchers who want to user APEX for their research, have been improved. Among these are the observing time estimators, the atmospheric tool calculator and the instrument setup tool.

Online, 12-16 October 2020

Ground-based astronomical observations in the thermal infrared wavelength regime (3-30 microns) provide a powerful tool to discover and characterise the most obscured and cool sources in the Universe. This workshop aims to bring together the experts in the field to review the science highlights from various thermal infrared instruments, from protoplanetary discs to active galactic nuclei. Some future facilities will be reviewed, and techniques and approaches for observations and calibrations will be compared, with the aim to reach the theoretical limit, the background-limited performance. This conference was originally planed for earlier this year and had to be postponed due to the Covid crisis. It will now be held online on 12-16 October. Participation is free of charge and all sessions will be recorded. Please see the conference webpage for more information.

The exceptional global conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic have deeply affected science operations at ESO observatories, causing an unprecedented backlog of observations for high-priority programmes, including Large Programmes. ESO is studying a variety of measures to complete those programmes at the earliest possible time once operations are resumed, which may require the exceptional suspension of the Call for Proposals for Period 107 (April-October 2021). While the decision is not firm yet, researchers preparing or planning to submit proposals for Period 107 should take into account that such suspension is a real possibility.

Version 6 of the ESO Science Data Products standard is now published. It is a complete revision and restructuring of the previously published version available on the ESO Phase 3 web site. It now integrates the information published as separate addenda and in the Phase 3 frequently asked questions also. A major effort has been devoted to improve the readability and clarity of the text. Errors and typos have been corrected. The new version of the standard can be downloaded as a PDF document.

This data release provides 3D data cubes obtained from KMOS, the K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph. The instrument is located at the VLT UT1 telescope and has 24 image slicer Integral Field Units (IFUs) that can be placed independently in the patrol field of 7.2 arcmin diameter. Each IFU has 14 slices with 14 spatial pixels along each slice and a field-of-view of 2.8x2.8 arcsec² which gives a spatial resolution of 0.2 arcsec. Spectral resolving power depends on the grating and is between 2000 and 4200. This initial release consists of observations from October 2013 (i.e. start of operations) until February 2020.

The Offices for Science and the Astronomy Faculty are very pleased to present the 2020 ESO Fellows. Here is an introduction to the Fellows due to start in Chile later this year.

The Offices for Science and the Astronomy Faculty are very pleased to present the 2020 ESO Fellows. Here is an introduction to the Fellows due to start in Garching, Germany later this year.