Overview

The expected Paranal Instrumentation and Facilities to be offered in Period 112 and changes foreseen for Periods 113 and 114 are presented at the overview page.

General

• Further improvements of the new Phase 1 system (p1) will take place in the following Periods.
  

UT instruments and facilities

• MOONS - the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph – is expected to be installed at the UT1 Nasmyth A focus during the fourth quarter of 2023.
• The VLT Visitor Focus at UT1 will be available, but the installation of the field corrector lens for MOONS may pose restrictions.
• FORS1, the upgraded FORS instrument, is expected to be installed and see first commissioning in P113. FORS2 will thus be decommissioned in P114, and  first commissioning of FORS1 without the MXU is planned to occur in P114. Subsequent semesters will see the retrofit of the MXU to FORS1 together with subsequent commissioning.
• The remaining modes of ERIS may be offered in P112, conditional on successful commissioning.
• The recoating of the UT+VLTI coude train will continue with M5s and M7s. This activity will be performed one UT at a time, each time implying a two-month unavailability for VLTI+UT operations.
• GRAVITY and the VLTI are undergoing upgrades and enhancements as part of the GRAVITY+ project, with an emphasis on the UTs. GRAVITY dual-field wide is part of these enhancements, and more will be rolled out in the coming periods.
• KMOS - From P112 the observatory will only provide a telluric in the evening twilight at an average airmass.