The ESO and ESO-ALMA Users Committee (UC) meeting number 46 was held on 28-29 April 2022 in an hybrid format. The Spanish representative attended online.

A significant number of representatives met in-person at the ESO Headquarters in Garching but others attended online with ESO and ALMA heads of departments and with ESO Director General (DG) to advise the DG on matters pertaining to the performance, scientific access, operations and data management facilities of the La Silla Paranal Observatory and ALMA.

The agenda and presentations are available at this URL.
We encourage users to consult the following documents containing important information:

  • Results from the ESO-UC Poll 2022 from the Spanish community are now summarised in this document. The full report including all countries is at this URL. All representatives noticed an increase in the participation to the national polls and higher level of feedback.
  • The latest news related to ESO operations are collected at this URL. All users should refer to this website before contacting ESO or ESO UC representatives.
  • We remind users that the science portal for the ESO archive is available at this URL. Users are welcome to browse archival data and report any issue(s) with ESO.

The next chair of the ESO-UC is Peter Schilke (German representative).
These are some highlights of the UC meeting 46 (UC46) that ESO and ESO-ALMA users should be aware of:

  • ESO will celebrate its 60 years in October 2022.
  • LPO is back in full operations since April 2022: visiting astronomers are allowed on-side again and public visits will resume.
  • ESO will not discriminate against individuals by nationality. As a result of the war in Ukraine, ESO has no engagement with institutions or companies from Russia or Belarus.
  • Users should be aware that several instruments will be soon decommissioned (e.g. VISTA/VIRCAM, LA Silla SofI and EFOSC2, VLT FORS2) and others will see light in the coming periods (SOXS, NIRSP, FORS1, …). All the information can be found at this URL.
  • Regarding the E-ELT, progress is seen in the construction site URL. but delays might be expected due to the impact of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine as well as an increase in the final cost due the current world-wide situation. Latest news can be consulted on the E-ELT website: elt.eso.org. E-ELT instruments include MICADO, HARMONI, ANDES, MORFEO, METIS, MOSAIC.
  • ESO has started an ambitious sustainability programme, in particular Paranal and Armazones will now operate with a dedicated solar-panel plant producing enough energy for both sites.
  • ALMA Cycle 10 will offer dual time observations with JWST.
  • The current DPR review process is considering a 50/50 time distribution with proposals requesting less than 25h eligible for DPR.
  • Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) create permanent and unique links to text, webpages, data and other digital resources of astronomical data: ESO users will be asked to cite the DOIs in addition to the normal acknowledgments of data used in their publications. The ESO library will track them. Coming up soon.
  • Significant updates on the way for the ETC at etc.eso.org: 4MOST, CRIRES, very soon FORS2, ERIS, HARPS/NIRPS. Later more instruments will come up along with E-ELT support.
  • In addition ESO and ESO-ALMA users should be aware to the fact sheets available for LPO link here, ALMA link here, Observing Programme Office OPO: link here, and the data management centre link here.

Last update 12 September 2022 by Nicolas Lodieu