The Call for Proposals for observations at ESO telescopes in Period 97 (1 April - 30 September 2016) has been released. Please consult the Call for Proposals 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 webpages that are linked from the Call.
The deadline for proposals is 12:00 CEST 1 October 2015.
The User Support Department (USD) invites principal investigators and their Phase 2 delegates to participate in a user feedback campaign. The survey is designed to provide USD with the opinions of the science community on a number of services, in particular related to service mode observation preparations, execution and follow-up. As such it is an important way for ESO and the USD to know where we are doing well, and where there is room for improvement.
ESO has started to distribute the instrument data reduction pipelines as RPM packages. Following the release in April 2015 of pipelines with MacPorts, RPM packages are now available for Linux users. RPM and MacPorts distributions should make the installation of pipeline software easier and less prone to errors.
As announced in February 2015, the FLAMESGIRAFFE focusing procedure has been updated, resulting in significant improvement to the spectral resolution of the instrument. The spectral resolution characterisation has been completed for all grating settings and the new resolving powers are listed under the FLAMES News.
The VLTI 2nd generation instrument GRAVITY provides a four way beam combination facility with laser metrology for micro-arcsecond astrometry and high resolution imaging and spectroscopy in the K-band, described in Eisenhauer et al 2011. The instrument has been shipped to Paranal and is undergoing testing in the integration lab. Laboratory fringes were achieved in July 2015 and the instrument will be installed in the VLTI combined laboratory later this year. More details here.
The VISTA Public Survey VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) is a wide area (562 square degrees), near-infrared, multi-epoch imaging survey of the Milky Way Bulge and Disk. The initial survey in the five broadband filters Z, Y, J, H, Ks is followed by extensive multi-epoch observations in the Ks-band. This new release consists of three high level photometric catalogues superseding the previous release.
ESO has a prominent fellowship programme in both Garching (Germany) and Santiago (Chile), with a yearly application deadline (15 October). The goal of these fellowships is to offer outstanding early-career scientists the opportunity to further develop their independent research programmes in an exciting scientific environment with close contact to the activities and staff at ESO.
The first band- and field-merged science catalogue created from the imaging data obtained by the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+) has been released and it is available for download via the Catalogue Facility from the ESO Science Archive Facility.
The 6th European Radio Interferometry School (ERIS), sponsored by the European Union, RadioNet3 and ESO is a 5-day school of lectures and tutorials focussed on obtaining scientific results from radio interferometry at metre to sub-mm wavelengths. The School is primarily intended for graduate students and beginning post-docs, but more senior researchers interested in learning about the techniques are also welcome to attend. Full details can be found here, but capacity has been reached.
The School aims to initiate and train astronomers in the best possible exploitation of VLTI over a broad range of science topics, showcasing some science applications, teaching the fundamentals of optical interferometry and providing practical training with software tools. The school is addressed to undergraduate and PhD students, postdocs and astronomers keen to exploit long-baseline interferometry and the 2nd generation instruments coming to VLTI, GRAVITY and MATISSE. More details are available on the Summer School webpage.
The workshop will consider the science from current and upcoming multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) facilities, with a focus on the important cases already limited by sensitivity and spatial resolution. The scientific topics that demand future MOS capabilities on ELTs will be reviewed. The workshop will be organized in sessions on science themes from planetary systems and stellar populations to the earliest phases of galaxy formation. There will be a special session dedicated to critical analysis of the ELT MOS facilities required in the post-JWST era to assess their complementarity and competitiveness. More details can be found on the website.
Astrobiology and Planetary Atmospheres Joint ESO, Universidad de Chile, Universidad Andrés Bello Workshop, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile, 28 September – 02 October 2015
Astrobiology has become the meeting point for astronomers, biologists, geologists, and climatologists in trying to solve the puzzle of how life originated in the Universe. The main aims of the workshop are to foster exchanges across all the major disciplines involved in the field of astrobiology, particularly those working on climatology of Solar System planets. More details can be found on the workshop webpage or by email. Registration deadline is 1 September.
ESO Public Surveys have increased in size and number and now vastly increase the volume of public data delivered. Also about 15% of VLT science time has been allocated to Large Programmes. This workshop will focus on the scientific results achieved and the potential for enhanced exploitation of the archival data from these programmes. Presentations from all the Public Surveys and a representative set of the Large Programmes completed since the last Large Programme workshop in 2008 will be scheduled. Full details can be found on the workshop website. The registration deadline is 7 September 2015.
The "F. Lucchin" International PhD School STEEL will provide a comprehensive training in both the science and the technologies used to deliver astronomical results with the range of E-ELT instruments. The school is open to postgraduate and masters students and early career postdoc researchers, with space for around 80-100 participants. Lectures at the School will cover the full range of E-ELT science cases and hands-on sessions will be offered in techniques ranging from crowded-region photometry to simulations of AO observations. Details can be found on the School webpage or by email for further inquiries.
The objective of the workshop is to present and discuss the various approaches to science data management in spacecraft missions and ground-based facilities for astronomy. The workshop continues the series of ESO/ESA joint meetings on operating ground- and space-based astronomical facilities. Topics for the current workshop include: quality assurance of science data and related calibrations; data reduction and analysis; and science archives (content and user services). Full details on the workshop website or by enquiry to sciops2015. Deadline for registration and abstract submission is 18 September 2015.
The Solar System as Seen by the ELTs ESO Workshop, Garching, Germany, 30 November – 4 December 2015
