First light of X-shooter

The first of the second generation Very Large Telescope instrument, X-shooter, was installed at the VLT at the end of 2008 and the first observations in its full configuration were made on 14 March 2009, demonstrating that the instrument works efficiently over the full spectral range, from the difficult ultraviolet spectral range to the limit of the K-band dominated by thermal emission, and this with unprecedented resolution and quality. X-shooter has already proved its full capability by obtaining the complete spectra of low metallicity stars, of X-ray binaries, of distant quasars and galaxies, of the nebulae associated with Eta Carinae and the supernova 1987A, as well as with the observation of a distant gamma-ray burst and a supernova that coincidently exploded at the time of the commissioning run.