Olivier Chesneau, one of the most active and prolific members of the optical interferometry community, passed away in May 2014, at the age of 41. To honour his work in this field, his home institute, the Laboratoire J.-L. Lagrange at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in France, and ESO established a prize in his memory. Since 2015, the prize has been awarded biennially for the best PhD thesis completed in the field of high angular resolution optical astronomy.

The Call for Proposals for Period 112 is out, and a short session will be offered to present the material you will need to write a proposal for the La Silla Paranal Observatory. This session will take place online Friday 3 March 2023 at 12 CET, using the MS Teams platform.

A substantial fraction of cosmic star formation happens in star clusters, and binary populations residing in extreme cluster environments are fundamentally different from those in galactic fields. Each binary in a star cluster will evolve through a multitude of interactions with other cluster members. A better understanding of this evolution is required to answer some of the most pressing questions in modern astrophysics, from the origin of black-hole mergers to the characterization of galaxies in the early Universe. Historically, star clusters have always been cornerstones for our knowledge of stellar evolution. With this workshop, we aim to continue this legacy by establishing them as cosmic probes for binary studies. The workshop intersects four main fields of modern astrophysics: star formation, stellar and binary evolution, star clusters and their dynamics, and gravitational wave astronomy. With this scientific overlap, the workshop wants to bring scientists of all of these fields together and facilitate the scientific exchange that will lead to new insights and scientific breakthroughs.

Doppler shifts precision and accuracy are the traditional aspects of spectral fidelity, but there are many others, such as: how well are the spectra characterized for noise, scattered light, detector effects, instrumental profile? What are abundance realistic uncertainties? Is precision enough or is accuracy required? Which are the limits of precise and accurate spectroscopy and which exciting science will new performances enable? Which science require spectral fidelity and how can we enable it? What is its present status and future perspective? With the installation of HARPS at the 3.6m telescope in La Silla 20 years ago, ESO community has a central role in this research. HARPS has been transformational, paving the way to the new generations of planet hunters. The aim of the conference is to discuss all the above topics, with a view to the long heritage of HARPS, the first 5 years of operations of ESPRESSO, the new results from NIR spectrographs, and future spectrographs such as ANDES at the ELTs.

The User Support Department again extends its sincere thanks to all those Principal Investigators and their Phase 2 delegates who filled this year's online Paranal Service Mode User Satisfaction Survey.  A total of 150 responses were received from the targeted campaign. As in the past, where possible, respondents who provided detailed comments have been contacted via e-mail.  A summary report based on this latest User Satisfaction Survey is now available.

Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) is a survey (programme 198.A-2008, PI M. Nonino) belonging to the second cycle of ESO VISTA Public Surveys. It is aimed at observing 20 massive galaxy clusters in the infrared Y, J, and Ks bands. Those clusters have also been observed in many ground- and space-based programmes (e.g. CLASH, RELICS, HFF/ BUFFALO). The survey will mainly explore galaxy evolution over a wide, and still largely unexplored, diversity of cluster environments. 

This is the first data release, DR1 of the IFS deep cube obtained in the MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF) as part of the Large Programme ID 1100.A-0528, PI M. Fumagalli.

This second data release (DR2) of the X-Shooter ESO Large Program 1104.B-0370, "INvestigating Stellar Population In Relics", INSPIRE, PI C. Spiniello, provides 1-D spectra for 21 new systems and new versions for the spectra of the 19 ultra-compact massive galaxies already released in DR1, to which the NIR band spectra have been added.

The 111^th Observing Programmes Committee (OPC) met online during November 2022. Based on the committee's recommendations to the ESO Director General, a total of 944 (10-hour equivalent) nights of (Designated) Visitor Mode and Service Mode observations were allocated on the VLT/VLTI, the 3.6-metre, and NTT telescopes. The submission deadline for Phase 2 Service Mode observations is Thursday, 2 March 2023; see the separate announcement for further details.

With the release of the La Silla Paranal telescope schedule, the Phase 2 preparation for runs scheduled in Service Mode begins. The deadline for the submission of the Phase 2 material for Period 111 is Thursday, 2 March 2023. 

The Service Mode guidelines provide detailed information about Phase 2 material preparation with the web application p2, while the instrument overview table provides quick links to user manuals, tools and p2 tutorials for individual instruments. 

The User Support Department at ESO offers assistance in the preparation of the Phase 2 material for Service Mode runs. On top of the material from previous LPO Users Workshops that include hands-on observations preparation videos, the USD staff is available to arrange individual online meetings upon requests. The goal of these meetings is to get acquainted with the Phase 2 tools, and to help you start preparing your specific Phase 2 material.