The APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) is an imaging survey covering 420 square degrees of the inner Galactic Plane at a wavelength of 870μm.The current release consists of emission maps covering the full area surveyed, available as 9 square degree tiles.

zCOSMOS (PI Simon Lilly, ESO Large Programme 175.A-0839) is a large redshift survey undertaken in the COSMOS field using the VIMOS spectrograph. About 600 hours were awarded to this Large Programme, which was executed between 2005 and 2010. This final release of zCOSMOS-bright includes 20689 1-d spectra.

A call for Science Verification (SV) of the upgraded VISIR was issued on 16 November 2015 (announcement) with a proposal deadline of 15 December 2015. The following modes were offered: Sparse Aperture Masking (SAM), coronography and burst readout mode. A total of 35 SV proposals, requesting in total about 62 hours, were received, with proposed observations covering a range of scientific topics.

Following the prioritisation of the ESO science programme for the 2020s (Report in PDF) and the envisaged importance of highly-multiplexed spectroscopy for numerous scientific applications in the future, the ESO Director for Science, Rob Ivison, has established a Working Group to investigate the scientific case, synergistic opportunities and practical requirements for a dedicated ground-based wide field spectroscopic survey telescope in the 2020s. The Working Group is soliciting input from the community.

EWASS 2016, Athens, Greece, 4 – 8 July 2016

MUSE, the new VLT wide field (1‘×1‘) optical integral field spectrograph, was successfully commissioned in 2014. Thanks to its unrivaled 3D capabilities, MUSE has truly opened up exciting new perspectives in many different areas of observational astrophysics, changing the way complex questions are tackled over a broad range: including planetary nebulae, star forming regions, supernova remnants, stellar populations, local and distant galaxy kinematics, AGN physics and feedback, lensing, clusters and proto-clusters, and much more. This EWASS 2016 Symposium will cover the full range of topics tackled by MUSE observations.

Schloss Ringberg, Tegernsee, Germany, 6 – 9 March 2016

The APEX 12 m submillimetre telescope has significantly contributed to a wide variety of astronomical science areas, ranging from the discoveries of new molecules to large and deep imaging of the submillimetre sky. Continuing on the success of the 2012 and 2014 Ringberg meetings devoted to APEX science, APEX2016 aims at presenting new science results and examining opportunities for the near future.

The first stage of commissioning of the new VLTI instrument GRAVITY has been completed with the successful combination of light from the four VLT Auxiliary Telescopes. During the commissioning, the Trapezium star cluster in Orion (M42) was observed and ϑ¹ Orionis F was discovered to be a binary. See Release eso1601 for more details.

The 97th Observing Programmes Committee (OPC) met on 17–19 November 2015. A total of 1093 (10-hour equivalent) nights of Visitor Mode and Service Mode observations were allocated on the VLT/VLTI, VISTA, VST, the 3.6-metre and NTT and APEX telescopes. The submission deadline for Phase 2 Service Mode observations is 4 February 2016; see separate announcement.

The Cryogenic high-resolution InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES) is currently undergoing a major upgrade led by ESO in collaboration with a consortium. The upgrade project (CRIRES+), which will significantly expand the scientific capabilities of CRIRES, recently achieved two major milestones: optical Final Design Review (FDR) in June 2015 and Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in September 2015. The current schedule foresees commissioning of CRIRES+ in Q1 2018.

The allocation of ESO telescope time for Period 97 (1 April – 30 September 2016) is expected to be emailed in the week beginning 21 December 2015. With the release of the telescope schedule, preparation of Service Mode (SM) observations (Phase 2) starts. The deadline for the submission of the Phase 2 material for Period 97 observations is 4 February 2016.