With the release of the telescope schedule for October 2015 – March 2016, preparation of Service Mode (SM) observations (Phase 2) starts. The deadline for the submission of the Phase 2 material for Period 96 observations is 6 August 2015. Detailed information on Phase 2 observation preparation can be found here.

As previously announced, NAOS-CONICA (NACO) was moved to the Nasmyth A focus of Antu and the failed CONICA detector was replaced by the long wavelength detector from the decommisisoned ISAAC instrument. Operations were resumed in January 2015 but the camera wheel axis became uncoupled in March 2015 and one of the detector quadrants failed to operate. The current status is that the camera wheel is fixed in the S13 position (13 mas pixel scale, 14x14 arcsecond field of view) and only three detector quadrants are working. Period 95 science users of NACO have all been notified.

KMOS is now on Facebook. There, you can join the KMOS group to discuss observation strategies, data reduction, calibration or science with KMOS. Your postings will be used to update the Science Data Products Forum. Don't miss this opportunity!

ESO/ESA Workshop, ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 24–27 November 2015

ESO and the European Space Agency (ESA) generate a significant fraction of science data from ground and space for the European and international astronomical community. These data allow access both directly for PIs and for the community at large through powerful science archives. The objective of the workshop is to present and discuss the various approaches to science data management in spacecraft missions and ground-based facilities for astronomy.

Maternushaus, Cologne, Germany, 6–13 September 2015

Optical/infrared long-baseline interferometry has reached a new stage with the advent of multi-telescope arrays accessible to a broad community of astronomers, most notably VLTI. In preparation for the second generation VLTI instruments, GRAVITY and MATISSE, the VLTI Summer School aims to train astronomers in the best possible exploitation of these instruments over a broad range of science topics.

The 2014 ESO Annual Report is now available, as full sized or small PDF. The Annual Report describes some science highlights of 2014 and provides a summary of last year's activities covering all aspects of the Organisation.

INAF, ESO & FP7-OPTICON School, Erice, Sicily, Italy, 8–20 October 2015

As the E-ELT and its instruments move into the construction phase, it is timely to re-examine the science cases in detail and to turn to the training of the astronomers who will use these facilities. The "F. Lucchin" International PhD School STEEL will provide a comprehensive training in both the science and the technologies used to deliver astronomical results with the range of E-ELT instruments. The school is open to postgraduate and masters students and early career postdoc researchers, with space for around 80-100 participants.

Recent developments of the Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF) project and the use of a laser comb for improved wavelength calibration have been announced.
The 4 Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) achieved first light with the first of the laser guide star units on VLT UT4; see Announcement. The components of the AOF will be installed later this year and commissioned in 2015 and 2016.
The laser frequency comb installed on HARPS has completed an intense first commissioning phase. A velocity precision of better than 5 cm s^-1 was obtained on a single laser comb exposure, improving to better than 2 cm s^-1 on combining exposures. See Announcement for more details.

The submission of proposals for the ALMA Early Science Cycle 3 closed on 23 April 2015. The entire process went smoothly and without any problems. The number of proposals reached the record number of 1582 for a total of 9037 hours of 12-m array time; a total of ~2100 hours is available for observations. This compares to a total of 1382 proposals in Cycle 2. The fraction of proposals from European PIs was 42%. More details of the submission statistics are available.

The submillimetre wide field bolometer camera ArTéMiS was successfully re-commissionned in July 2014 on APEX. ArTéMiS data can now be reduced using the BoA package. Dedicated ArTéMiS data reduction scripts are now available and the required receiver parameter files. Alternative data reduction scrips in IDL will be released in the near future.