New data products from the VISTA Survey of the Magellanic system Public Survey (VMC) are now available via the dedicated Phase 3 query interface. The current release is based on the observations of five new VMC survey tiles (three in the LMC and two in the SMC), as well as on improved reduction of two tiles released earlier.

ESO Workshop, ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 23–27 February 2015

Stellar halos are ubiquitous in luminous galaxies, but their low surface brightness hampers detailed study in distant galaxies. With the advent of large cameras and surveys, several late- and early-type galaxies have revealed similar low luminosity extended structures. These halos have complex morphologies with multiple stellar components, kinematics and substructures indicating the merger history. The halo morphologies resemble the density maps from cosmological simulations of galaxy formation in a hierarchical Universe.

The HAWK-I Ultra Deep Survey and GOODS Survey (HUGS) is an near-infrared imaging survey executed with HAWK-I (PI: A. Fontana); an overview can be found here. HUGS covers two CANDELS extragalactic fields: a sub-area of the UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey (UDS) and GOODS-South. HUGS delivers the deepest, highest quality images ever collected in the K-band: to Ks=27.3 (1σ) in UDS and to Ks=27.8 in GOODS-South. Deep Y-band images in the UDS field have also been acquired.

If you wish to conduct a PhD in astronomy-astrophysics within one of the largest centres of astrophysical research in the world, which covers every subject from planets, stars, and galaxies to cosmology, you should seriously consider applying to the IMPRS studentship programme in Munich.

The Science Verification (SV) for the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument (SPHERE) will take place on the nights of 1–11 December 2014. All community astronomers are kindly invited to participate in this opportunity to obtain early science with SPHERE and thus to demonstrate the scientific capabilities of this extreme adaptive optics instrument.

The Science Verification (SV) for MUSE consisted of two observing runs (20–29 June and 18–24 August 2014). Forty four programmes were fully completed and another three received partial data. All data are publicly available through the MUSE SV webpage.
Additional to the previous announcement, data from all three MUSE commissioning runs (February, April – May and 25 July – 03 August 2014) are now available for download together with calibration files.

ESO Workshop, ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 19–22 January 2015

This workshop will provide a forum for discussion of the likely astronomical landscape in the 2020s - both core science and burning topics, in so far as these can ever be predicted. Flowing from these considerations, the community is invited to advise the ESO Executive with regard to future facilities, including, but not limited to, those at the existing optical/infrared observatories on La Silla and Paranal, at the sub-millimetre observatories APEX and ALMA on Chajnantor and at the European Extremely Large Telescope to be built on Cerro Armazones.

Science-grade 1D spectral data products for UVES ECHELLE point source mode (with or without image slicer) and X-shooter ECHELLE SLIT (not IFU) mode are available via the Science Archive Facility. They cover the entire operational life of the respective instruments. New products are added, typically with a monthly cadence, as new observations are executed. PIs and their data delegates can exercise their privileged access during the proprietary period to download these science-grade 1D spectra, as they already can for raw data.

An extended set of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) on data reduction is available. The FAQs cover general questions, on Reflex and Gasgano and grouped by VLT and VLTI instruments. Specific requests for help should be directed to the User Support Department.

Information on the status and progress of your observing runs, and subscription to the e-mail night reports is available via  the User Portal page.