UT instruments and facilities

• CRIRES is being transformed into a cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph. It is expected to be back in operation in 2017.
• It is expected that XSHOOTER will undergo an intervention lasting up to 6 months in the coming periods during which the instrument will not be available for operations. The main aim of the intervention is to fix the ADC systems.
• SINFONI may undergo an upgrade during Period 96  - at the same time as the installation of the Deformable Secondary Mirror (see below) -   to replace the H+K grating by a high-resolution one, to replace the  detector, and to modify its fore-optics.
• Installation of ESPRESSO, the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, is expected to start in 2016.

Activities related to the installation of the Adaptive Optics Facility on UT4 (Yepun)

• GALACSI, the adaptive optics module for MUSE, is expected to be installed on Nasmyth B early in Period 96.
• The installation of the Deformable Secondary Mirror and re-commissioning of the telescope is expected to take place during the second part of  Period 96; as a consequence, UT4 will not be available for approximately 2 months.
• The commissioning of the AOF and AOF-related systems is expected to require monthly slots of up to 7 days during possibly 2 years.

VLTI instruments and facilites

• PIONIER may be offered as an ESO facility instrument in Period 96, after the laboratory upgrade.
• Installation of GRAVITY, ,  the second generation Very Large Telescope Interferometer  instrument  for precision narrow-angle astrometry and interferometric imaging, is expected to start in 2015.
• Installation of MATISSE, the Multi  AperTure mid-Infrared  SpectroScopic  Experiment,  is expected to start in 2016.