ESO is organising a conference, dubbed “VLT beyond 2030”, in Garching near Munich (Germany) on 26-30 January 2026. ESO aims to maintain the VLT and VLTI at the science forefront of astrophysical research in the ELT era. The development of the facilities follows planning that is discussed with the ESO governing bodies to derive the best synergies amongst the facilities. As part of this process, the “VLT beyond 2030” January 2026 meeting will review science topics, emerging technologies and expanding parameter spaces relevant for the VLT/I in the next decade and beyond. 

Nearly all 4MOST components have now arrived at the Paranal Observatory. Meanwhile, the VISTA telescope has been successfully recommissioned following the modifications required to accommodate 4MOST. The reintegration of the various components—such as the spectrographs and fiber positioner—has now begun, with installation on the telescope scheduled over the coming months. Commissioning will continue through the end of the year, with the five-year survey expected to begin in the first half of 2026.

The ESO user support YouTube channel has been refreshed with new and updated video tutorials. These guides help users prepare their Phase 2 material efficiently, as well as navigate and query the ESO Science Archive.

The release of pipeline processed CRIRES+ spectra provides access to reduced scientific data obtained with the cryogenic high-resolution spectrograph CRIRES+, an upgrade of the original instrument CRIRES, which was available till July 2014. CRIRES+ is in operation at the ESO VLT since October 2021. This instrument is a cross-dispersed infrared echelle specrograph with increased wavelength range covered simultaneously by a factor of ten in respect to the old CRIRES. In addition, CRIRES+ is equipped with a new detector focal plane array composed of three Hawaii 2RG detectors with a 5.3 μm cut-off wavelength, a new spectropolarimetric unit was added, and the calibration system was enhanced.

ESO is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals (CfP) for development studies for ALMA upgrades, with a deadline for proposal submission on Wednesday 27 August 2025 at 11:00am CEST. Interested institutes should register on the In-Tend portal and express interest in the ALMA Development Studies 2025 with reference FCFP-129429-AMA. The specific focus of this call includes the relevance to the implementation of the ALMA Development Roadmap priorities, and particularly the development of new receiver components allowing an expansion to 4x the current IF bandwidth, as well as software initiatives that enable and maximize the science output of the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade.

Following an extended review and acceptance process, the 4MOST survey management plan (SMP) for the five year public surveys is now available. The 4MOST SMP documents describe the timeline of the public releases, the project organisation, the preparation and data acquisition, data processing and publication of the science data products. It includes an extended description of the single surveys, with detailed specific information on the target selection and on the science data products associated with the individual science cases. While the raw data are immediately public, the science data products will be released according to the data release plan detailed in the document available from the 4MOST SMP web page.

ESO will host a SOXS day on July 1, 2025, to present the SOXS instrument and its science opportunitites to the community. During this day, talks will be delivered on the instrument capabilites and the operations model, the science opportunities and the GTO programme, and the policies that will govern the operations of SOXS. Further, there will be time for questions and discussions. The meeting will be held at the ESO HQ in Garching in hybrid mode. Potential participants are kindly asked to register.

Good science deserves great communication! ESO is pleased to announce the first ESO science writing school, which will take place over one week in August, at the ESO headquarters in Garching, Germany. This school is designed to empower (mostly) PhD students and early-career postdocs with the tools and confidence to effectively present their scientific research – both in writing and in person.

This is the collection of reduced spectra from the high-resolution near-infrared spectrograph NIRPS (Near Infra-Red Planet Searcher) in operation at the ESO La Silla 3.6m telescope. NIRPS complements HARPS, extending its capability into the infrared. It offers a wavelength range from 970 to 1850 nm. The median resolving power is 82000 in the High Accuracy mode and 75000 in High Efficiency mode.

The first release of the PHANGS–MUSE Nebular Catalogue (PI: Schinnerer) is now available from the ESO Science Archive Facility. This release is based on integral-field spectroscopic observations obtained with the MUSE instrument at the VLT, primarily under the PHANGS–MUSE Large Programme, and supplemented by data from additional ESO programmes (see PHANGS-MUSE release description).