Policies and Procedures

The policies and procedures that are applied for allocation of observing time on the telescopes of the La Silla Paranal Observatory are defined in the VLT/VLTI Science Operations Policy document and GTO allocation. This document is complemented by specific information for the practical implementation of the policy for allocation of Director Discretionary Time and for Target of Opportunity observations, as well as by the lists of Guaranteed Time Observations that are protected against duplication.

Specific rules apply for Public Surveys to which more than 75% of the ESO time on VST (optical) and VISTA (NIR) will be devoted.

Paranal and La Silla site specific operational procedures and policies can be found in the Paranal Science Operations and La Silla Science Operations web pages.