• EFOSC2 is not planned to be offered beyond Period 116, as the installation and commissioning of Son of X-shooter (SOXS) is expected. Hence no Monitoring Proposals will be accepted. Proposing teams should be aware that the time offered on EFOSC2 will be limited and will depend on the
  technical activities on NTT for the commissioning of SOXS, which will be given priority

Overview

The expected Paranal Instrumentation and Facilities to be offered in Period of the call and changes foreseen for the following two periods are presented at the overview page.

Instruments and facilities

• MOONS - the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph – reached full Provisional Acceptance Europe (PAE) in Q4 2024. The commissioning of MOONS on UT1 Nasmyth A is planned between December 2025 and May 2026. The instrument may be offered in P117 (Q4 2026).
  
• The VLT Visitor Focus at UT1 is not available.
• FORS-Up, the FORS Upgrade project is an upgrade of FORS1. FORS2 will stay in nominal operation until the FORSup upgrade is available. First commissioning of FORS1 without the MXU is planned to occur in P116. The Multi-Object Spectroscopy Unit (MXU) and Polarisation mode will not be available in P117. The full operational capability of FORS-Up, encompassing all current modes, is expected to be achieved by P118.
• VISIR: ESO plans to decommission VISIR in P117, because the demand and allocations for this instrument have been very modest. Moreover, no further spare parts for maintaining the instrument are available.
  
• ERIS - the ability to perform blind offset acquisitions for AO guide stars with RP <18 mag and BP >19 mag (Gaia magnitudes) by using an offset star with BP < 19 mag within 2′ is being implemented and will hopefully be offered in a future period. If successful, this will increase sky coverage of the LGS mode, especially at high galactic latitudes.
• 4MOST: The 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) instrument’s PAE on the VISTA telescope is expected in Q1 2025. The VISTA telescope will be upgraded to facilitate the installation of 4MOST. Operations are expected to start in Q1 2026 at the earliest.
  
• ESPRESSO will be offered also in 4-UT modes for Large Programmes, starting from P117.
• GRAVITY+ Adaptive Optics (GPAO): More technical acitivies on GRAVITY+ AO will talke place in P116. The next and last major step will be the installation and commssioning of Laser Guide Star systems for VLTI-UTs in Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, followed by a Science Verification. It is foreseen to offer this new capability in P117.
• Pending a successful commissioning, the first ASGARD (HEIMDALLR/NOTT) observations are foreseen to take place at VLTI in P117. A fraction of the ASGARD observing time is open to the community. Proposal submission and selection will be organized via a dedicated channel by the ASGARD consortium.