ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 15–16 March 2018

Single dish submm facilities provide an essential complement to ALMA interferometry data, but require a set of special observing techniques and data reduction software that are different from radio and mm facilities. In this ESO-Radionet workshop, we will train both novice and more experienced users on how to optimally analyse data from telescopes such as APEX. The combination of interferometer data using short baselines and single dish data is required for sources containing emission on spatial scales larger than the largest recoverable scales. However the ALMA observatory does not yet provide such merged data products, and is not planning to do so in the near future. In the workshop, we will introduce different combination techniques such as feathering and joint deconvolution.

The User Support Department (USD) extends its thanks to all those Principal Investigators and their Phase 2 delegates who filled in this September's online Paranal Service Mode User Satisfaction Survey. A total of 194 responses were received from our targeted campaign. Where possible, we have contacted those respondents who provided detailed comments. A summary report based on this latest User Satisfaction Survey is now available.

ALMA Cycle 5 started successfully on 1 October 2017. Principal Investigator observations started with the longest configurations (~16 km). Progressively smaller baselines will be adopted over the course of next year, reaching the most compact configurations by July 2018. ALMA users may check the configuration schedule and the real-time observing status at any time.

The submillimetre/mm/cm QUESO Workshop 2017 (Centimetre-Sub-Millimetre Q&U (and V) European Southern Observatory Workshop) was held at ESO Garching from 25-27 October, 2017. The presentations are now available to download from the programme page.

Six months of observations have been added to the third catalogue release (DR3.2) from the ESO Public Survey VPHAS+ (VST Photometric H-alpha Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge). The updated catalogue release version DR3.2 includes aperture-matched band measurements derived from all calibrated images of sufficient quality that were acquired until 30 September 2015 under ESO Programme 177.D-3023(B,C,D,E, F, G, H). The current catalogue release covers about 1200 square degrees, which correspond to over half of the VPHAS+ footprint targeting the Southern Galactic Plane.

The ESO Large Programme, GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies (GASP) with Principal Investigator, B.Poggianti, has released deep MUSE 3D cubes observed in wide-field mode and natural seeing plus ancillary products from all of the observations taken during the first three semesters of the programme (Periods 96–98).

ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 12–14 March 2018

ESO's ground-based observatories located in Chile serve a very diverse astronomical community. The La Silla Paranal Observatory offers observations with a variety of telescopes, instruments and observing modes and a wide ranging level of user support. If you are a La Silla Paranal Observatory user and are interested in face-to-face contact with the various support services at ESO, this workshop is for you. The workshop will provide you with all the necessary knowledge to make the most out of ESO data and thereby provide a strong momentum to your science. Further details are available below and via the workshop website, which also has a preliminary programme.

ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 5–9 March 2018

There have been tremendous recent advances in observational techniques enabling resolution of the surfaces of stars other than the Sun. Current and planned VLTI instruments, SPHERE on the VLT and ALMA, as well as other interferometric facilities, have recently succeeded in resolving stellar surfaces. The workshop aims to bring together observers from different techniques and wavelengths, and theoreticians working on stellar atmospheres and stellar structure.

ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 15–19 October 2018

Recent discoveries of close-in planets around main sequence and even pre-main sequence stars raise a number of questions about the formation of planetary systems. Their formation and migration history must be directly linked to the conditions within the inner regions of their progenitor protoplanetary discs. These sites also play a key role in star-disc interactions. Studies probing this important region require the use of innovative techniques and a wide range of instruments.

This workshop will address a number of topics related to the inner disc, including the morphology and composition of the innermost disc regions, star-disc interaction, and theories that describe the evolution of the innermost disc regions and the formation of close-in planets.

The detection of the Gravitational Wave by the LIGO-VIRGO observatory network, as well as a gamma-ray source, on 17 August 2017 has resulted in one of the largest Target of Opportunity campaigns at ESO. Observations with several La Silla Paranal Telescopes led to the discovery of the first electromagnetic counterpart of a Gravitational Wave event. In addition, the Observatory carried out mid-infrared imaging with NACO (in the L' band) and VISIR (at 8.9 microns), albeit no source was detected. ESO and several of the observing teams involved have now made their datasets from this event publicly available.

All NACO and VISIR raw images, as well as reduced data from VISIR are publicly available through the ESO Science Archive under programme ID 60.A-9392. The VISIR data release includes coadded images and error maps and is accompanied by a comprehensive description.