The Call for Proposals for observations at ESO telescopes in Period 105 (1 April – 30 September 2020) has been released. Please consult the Period 105 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 CEST 26 September 2019.
Call for Proposals for Period 105
Published: 30 Aug 2019
Here we summarise some of the important changes for Period 105:
- Starting from Period 105, ESO proposals must be submitted using the new web-based tool p1. The LaTeX ESOFORM has been retired. Users are encouraged to get familiarised with the new system well before the deadline, by accessing the p1 introduction webpage and using the p1demo tool. Further details can be found in this Call for Proposals document and in the p1 ESO Messenger article.
- Joint VLT-XMM proposals are invited for Period 105.
- Normal and Monitoring Programme proposals will be accepted for OmegaCAM and VIRCAM without restrictions on atmospheric conditions, lunar phase or RA range. Both instruments are expected to be scheduled until Period 107.
- To homogenise the time allocation process across AO-assisted and non-AO instrument modes, the seven seeing categories are now replaced by seven turbulence categories for all instruments during the Phase 1 proposal preparation and submission. Users are encouraged to read the general description of these changes on the Observing Conditions webpage.
- In Period 105, a new RRM trigger system will be commissioned on UT2, allowing triggers that require a change of telescope focus. This is foreseen to be extended to the other UTs. Users are encouraged to read Section 4.6.1 of the Call for Proposals document for further details.
- VISIR will be available during the whole of Period 105 at UT3 with all its functionalities.
- The visitor focus of the 3.6-metre telescope is not offered during Period 105 due to the installation and commissioning of NIRPS. The Nasmyth A focus of UT1 is available for a Visitor Instrument during the whole Period 105, while the Cassegrain focus of UT4 will be available during the first months of Period 105. Further, a visitor focus for an interferometric instrument is available in the VLTI laboratory. Interested users should consult Section 3 of the Call for Proposals document.
- To allow longer Normal Programmes for nFLASH at APEX that request PWV larger than two millimetres, the maximum length of Normal Programmes - only for this instrument - has been raised to 199 hours.