The Space Telescope Science Institute, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, the Johns Hopkins University, European Southern Observatory, and Associated Universities, Inc. organized a Memorial Symposium to celebrate the life and work of our late friend and colleague Riccardo Giacconi. The Symposium was held in Washington, DC at the National Academy of Sciences on 29-30 May 2019. Presentations from the Symposium are now posted.

ESO is organising a virtual guided tour of the ESO sites to facilitate the interaction between recent ESO students in Chile and Germany and candidates interested in applying to the currently open programme. If you are considering applying for a studentship, ESO invites you to attend the tour on 5 November 2020, 14:00 CEST/10:00 CLT to discover the sites and learn more about the life of students at ESO, tips for your application or ask any other questions you might have. 

Due to the implications of the global pandemic and the suspension of science operations at the Paranal observatory since the end of March, ESO has postponed the end of VIRCAM operations, which were originally expected to take place until the end of Period 107 (30 September 2021). VIRCAM operations are now planned to go on until the end of Period 108 (31 March 2022). This extension should allow the completion of the remaining ongoing ESO Public Surveys, as well as Large Programmes approved by the OPC in previous periods.

As part of ESO’s efforts to offer science data products to its community via the ESO Science Archive Facility, all the spectroscopic data acquired since the beginning of UVES operations at the VLT from March 2000 to March 2020, i.e. 20 years, have been reprocessed. Whenever possible, 1D spectra have been stacked at the OB level. The master calibrations associated with the science data before March 2015 have been reprocessed for better quality and consistency. Due to this reprocessing, some of the early science products not available before are now provided. All 1D spectra products are available from the ESO archive, have quality control plots and associated 2D extracted spectral images.

Following the ramp-up to minimal science operations started on 9 September at Paranal and APEX (see separate announcement), observations with X-SHOOTER at UT3 have also recently resumed, and the instrument is now available for Director's Discretionary Time proposals.

A new version of the VVV VISTA Public Survey source catalog is now available from the ESO Archive. The imaging data in the ZYJHKs bands from which the source catalogue is extracted are acquired under ESO programme 179.B-2002 before the 26th of September 2015.  

A new data release is available that includes a flux map at 870 μm for the galaxy M83 (NGC 5236). It is obtained from the combination of the observations taken with the Large APEX Bolometer Camera (LABOCA) at the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), under the ESO programme id 081.C-0827(A), PI A. Lundgren, between 2008-06-19 and 2008-06-30.

The X-SHOOTER Spectral Library project (XSL) aims to build a new, moderate-resolution stellar spectral library for use in stellar population modelling. Once completed the XSL will represent a significant improvement on current empirical stellar spectral libraries in terms of stellar parameters and wavelength coverage. The survey was conducted in two phases: a two-semester pilot survey (084.B-0869 and 085.B-0751) followed up by a Large Programme (189.B-0925), PI S.C Trager. The entire survey delivers spectra of a total of nearly 700 unique stars. The joint science spectra products from the first and second XSL data releases are now available to the community via the ESO archive.

The ESO research studentship programme provides an outstanding opportunity for PhD students to experience the exciting scientific environment at one of the world's leading observatories. ESO's studentship positions are open to students enrolled in a university PhD programme in astronomy or related fields. Students accepted into the programme work on their doctoral project under the formal supervision of their home university, but they come to ESO to work and study under the co-supervision of an ESO staff astronomer for a period of between one and two years.

For six months, almost the whole ALMA site has been shut down with no power, water treatment, or running water. Only a single piece of key equipment, the hydrogen maser, is still powered and checked daily as one of the tasks of the ALMA Caretaker Teams, the teams who have ensured the safety and security of the ALMA Observatory through the shutdown. With the improving pandemic situation in Chile, ALMA is now scheduled to begin the long process of recovering the telescope array in the Atacama on October 1st, 2020, starting with preparation of the ALMA Operations Support Facility (OSF) at 2900 metres for the return of staff and contractors.