VISIONS is a sub-arcsec near-infrared atlas of the nearby (d < 500 pc) star-forming complexes accessible from the southern hemisphere. The atlas will contain tens of thousands of young stars (0.1-10 Myr), sensitive to objects down to a few Jupiter masses, and reach spatial resolutions of 100-250 au. This first release includes excellent quality J, H and Ks band observations of the dense field of the Ophiuchus star-forming region. Images, confidence maps and source lists, together with band-merged catalogues associated to each individual tile, are accessible via the Science Portal or via the Programmatic Access Service. The sky area observed is 7.5 square degrees, for which 1134 datasets are provided. Including the associated products the total volume of the release is 350 Gb.

UltraVISTA is an ultra-deep near-infrared survey of the central region of the COSMOS field. The fourth UltraVISTA data release comprises stacked images in YJHKs and NB118 narrow-band filters, as well as single-band and dual-mode source lists. The data release also contains a five-band merged catalogue, created from the individual Ks-selected source lists. The release is based on the observations carried out from 4 December 2009 to 29 June 2016, corresponding to 58138 individual images.  

The UVES SQUAD DR1 comprises fully reduced, continuum-fitted high-resolution spectra of quasars with redshifts z = 0–5, with the primary goal of enabling statistical studies of large quasar and absorber samples at high resolution. DR1 includes 467 quasar spectra from the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) on the ESO-VLT. These quasars have at least one exposure in the ESO UVES archive (longer than 100 sec) that was observed before 30th June 2008. All exposures longer than 100 sec observed before 17th November 2016 for these quasars were then included in the final, combined spectra in DR1. In total, 3088 exposures were selected and successfully processed, with a total exposure time of 10 million seconds (2803 hrs; an average of 5.9 hrs per quasar).

The Call for Proposals for observations at ESO telescopes in Period 104 (1 October 2019 – 31 March 2020) has been released. Please consult the Period 104 document for the main news items and policies related to applying for time on ESO telescopes. All technical information about the offered instruments and facilities is contained on ESO webpages that are linked from the Call. The proposal submission deadline is 12:00 CET 28 March 2019.

ESO announces the forthcoming deployment of its new tool for the preparation and submission of observing proposals. This represents the first part of a broader overhaul of the ESO Phase 1 system (p1) that, in the near future, will also entail a significant modernisation of the Observing Programmes Committee refereeing process and related tools. ESO will start to offer the new p1 system during Period 103 for the submission of DDT proposals. A demo version where users can experiment with the new system will soon be available. Further announcements will be made via the usual ESO communication channels.

Science workshops are an essential component of ESO's programmes and represent a unique opportunity to promote and foster ideas and collaborations within the scientific community. Every year, through the Directorate for Science, ESO provides support and funding to organise two workshops in Santiago and four in Garching, as well as co-funding some external workshops (see ESO Workshops calendar).

A new Call has been issued inviting community astronomers to team up with ESO staff and fellows in Chile and/or in Germany to submit proposals for ESO workshops to be held in 2020. Note that ESO has implemented a Code of Conduct for Workshops and Conferences, which applies to all meetings held at ESO premises. ESO-funded workshops that are held outside ESO premises are required to adopt their own codes of conduct.

ESO, Garching, Germany 12 March 2019

In April 1999, the first of the twin workhorses of the VLT, FORS1, started regular science operations. In September 1999 its twin, FORS2 arrived at Paranal and entered regular service in April 2000. Over the years, the two FORS instruments have provided unique data, leading to many astronomical discoveries. Both instruments have been amongst the most prolific Paranal instruments. In March there will be a one-day event celebrating the scientific discoveries made with these successful instruments. Registration is open and further details are available at the meeting website.

Bologna, Italy 6–9 May 2019

The theme for the First CTA Symposium is “Science opportunities with CTA”. Through a combination of invited and contributed talks, as well as poster sessions, the meeting aims to gather the larger multi-wavelength and multi-messenger communities and set up new channels of communications and synergies among them and their results (see the preliminary programme). Registration is now open and there is also a call for contributed talks.

ESO, Garching, Germany 3–5 June 2019

Registration is now open for the ESO ALMA Development workshop. This workshop aims to bring together a wide range of groups working on the continued development of ALMA in order to optimally coordinate these activities in light of the three-yearly ESO call for development studies, which is expected to be issued before the workshop. A particular emphasis will be given on presenting the ALMA 2030 development roadmap. Further details, including an outline of the programme can be found on the workshop webpage. The registration deadline is 2 May 2019.

Cagliari, Italy 14–18 October 2019

The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) is the world’s most sensitive facility for millimeter/submillimeter astronomical observations, and will soon be fully operational in all of the originally planned bands. Since its first observations, ALMA has routinely delivered groundbreaking scientific results that span nearly all areas of astrophysics. Following conferences in Puerto Varas (Chile, 2012), Tokyo (Japan, 2014), and Indian Wells (USA, 2016), the ALMA partnership is organising the next ALMA Science Conference in Cagliari this October. Registration will open in the second week of March.