If you wish to conduct a PhD in astronomy-astrophysics within one of the largest centres of astrophysical research in the world, which covers every subject from planets, stars, and galaxies to cosmology, you should seriously consider applying to the IMPRS studentship programme in Munich.

The ESO Science Archive Facility has distributed raw calibration files such as bias frames and flat field frames for many years. As an additional service, we now are also distributing certified, processed and co-added calibration frames that can be directly used for science processing, without having to run the entire data reduction chain.

New reduced data products resulting from the Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey are now available via the Phase 3 dedicated query interface at the Science Archive Facility.

The 96th Observing Programmes Committee met on 19–21 May 2015. A total of 1168.4 (8-hour equivalent) nights of visitor and service mode observations were allocated on the VLT/VLTI, VISTA, VST, the 3.6-metre, NTT and APEX telescopes. The following announcement provides details of Phase 2 for Service Mode observations.

With the release of the telescope schedule for October 2015 – March 2016, preparation of Service Mode (SM) observations (Phase 2) starts. The deadline for the submission of the Phase 2 material for Period 96 observations is 6 August 2015. Detailed information on Phase 2 observation preparation can be found here.

As previously announced, NAOS-CONICA (NACO) was moved to the Nasmyth A focus of Antu and the failed CONICA detector was replaced by the long wavelength detector from the decommisisoned ISAAC instrument. Operations were resumed in January 2015 but the camera wheel axis became uncoupled in March 2015 and one of the detector quadrants failed to operate. The current status is that the camera wheel is fixed in the S13 position (13 mas pixel scale, 14x14 arcsecond field of view) and only three detector quadrants are working. Period 95 science users of NACO have all been notified.

KMOS is now on Facebook. There, you can join the KMOS group to discuss observation strategies, data reduction, calibration or science with KMOS. Your postings will be used to update the Science Data Products Forum. Don't miss this opportunity!

ESO/ESA Workshop, ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 24–27 November 2015

ESO and the European Space Agency (ESA) generate a significant fraction of science data from ground and space for the European and international astronomical community. These data allow access both directly for PIs and for the community at large through powerful science archives. The objective of the workshop is to present and discuss the various approaches to science data management in spacecraft missions and ground-based facilities for astronomy.

Maternushaus, Cologne, Germany, 6–13 September 2015

Optical/infrared long-baseline interferometry has reached a new stage with the advent of multi-telescope arrays accessible to a broad community of astronomers, most notably VLTI. In preparation for the second generation VLTI instruments, GRAVITY and MATISSE, the VLTI Summer School aims to train astronomers in the best possible exploitation of these instruments over a broad range of science topics.

The 2014 ESO Annual Report is now available, as full sized or small PDF. The Annual Report describes some science highlights of 2014 and provides a summary of last year's activities covering all aspects of the Organisation.