Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
European Organisation
for Astronomical
Research in the
Southern Hemisphere
European Organisation
for Astronomical
Research in the
Southern Hemisphere
P. Horlek/ESO
ESO, the European Southern Observatory, of Chile: LaSilla, Paranal and Chajnantor. The four Unit Telescopes (UTs) of the Very Large
Telescope (VLT) at the P
aranal Observatory in Chile.
is the foremost intergovernmental astron- LaSilla, located 2400 metres above sea
omy organisation in Europe. It is sup level and 600 kilometres north of Santiago
ported by 16 countries: Austria, B
elgium, de Chile, was ESOs first site. It is acific coast in one of the driest areas in
P
Brazil 1, the Czech Republic, Denmark, equipped with several optical telescopes the world. Scientific operations began in
France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the with mirror diameters of up to 3.6 metres. 1999 and have resulted in many extreme-
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, ly successful research programmes.
Sweden, Switzerland and the United The 3.5-metre New Technology Tele-
Kingdom. Several other countries have scope (NTT) broke new ground in the The VLT is a most unusual telescope
expressed an interest in membership. 1980s and was the first in the world and arguably the worlds most advanced
to have a computer-controlled main mir- optical instrument. It is not just one tele-
Created in 1962, ESO carries out an ror, a technology developed at ESO and scope, but an array of four, each with a
ambitious programme focused on the now applied to most of the worlds cur- main mirror 8.2 metres in diameter. With
design, construction and operation rent large telescopes. LaSilla remains one such telescope, images of celestial
of powerful ground-based observing at the forefront of astronomy, and is the objects as faint as magnitude 30 have
facilities enabling astronomers to make second most scientifically productive been obtained in a one-hour exposure.
important scientific discoveries. ESO observatory in ground-based astronomy This corresponds to seeing objects that
also plays a leading role in promoting (after Paranal).
The P
aranal site is located are four billion times fainter than those
and organising cooperation in astro 2600 metres above sea level and is home seen with the naked eye.
nomical research. to the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the
Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for One of the most exciting features of the
ESO operates three world-class observ- Astronomy (VISTA), the worlds largest VLT is the option to use it as a giant opti-
ing sites in the Atacama Desert region survey telescope, and the VLT Survey cal interferometer (the VLT Interferometer
Telescope (VST), the largest telescope or VLTI). This is done by combining the
designed exclusively to survey the skies
1
B razil has already signed an Accession Agreement in visible light. Paranal is situated about The telescopes of the ALMA array spread across the
and will officially become the 16th Member State 130 kilometres south of Antofagasta Chajnantor plateau in Chile. APEX can be seen in the
of ESO on completion of the requisite ratification
process.
in Chile, 12 kilometres inland from the distance (far right).
S. Otarola/ESO
Night-time at LaSilla. lengths. It is located on the high-altitude Armazones and most major contracts
Chajnantor plateau, 5000 metres above have been signed. The start of ELT oper-
light from two or more of the 8.2-metre sea level one of the highest astronomi- ations is expected around 2024.
telescopes or two or more of the four cal observatories in the world. The ALMA
1.8-metre movable Auxiliary Telescopes project is a partnership between ESO, The ESO Headquarters are located in
(ATs). In this interferometric mode, the East Asia and North America, in coopera- Garching, near Munich, Germany. This is
telescopes vision is as sharp as that of tion with the Republic of Chile. the scientific, technical and administrative
a telescope the size of the separation centre of ESO where technical develop-
between the most distant mirrors. For The C hajnantor site is also home to the ment programmes are carried out to pro-
the VLTI, this is 200 metres. Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) vide the observatories with the most ad
a 12-metre diameter millimetre and sub- vanced instruments. ESOs offices in Chile
Each year, about 1900 proposals are millimetre telescope, operated by ESO are located in Vitacura, Santiago. They
submitted for the use of ESO telescopes, on behalf of the Max Planck Institute for host the local administration and support
requesting between three and six times Radio Astronomy, the Onsala Space groups, and are home to ESO/Chile astron-
as many nights as are available. ESO is Observatory and ESO itself. omers when they are not at the observa-
the most productive ground-based tories. This site also contains the ALMA
observatory in the world whose operation The next step beyond the VLT is the con- Santiago Central Office. ESO Vitacura is
yields many peer-reviewed publications: struction of the Extremely Large Telescope an active node for training new genera-
in 2016 alone, 940 refereed papers based (ELT) with a primary mirror 39metres in tions of researchers, acting as a bridge
on ESO data were published. diameter. The ELT will be the worlds big- between scientists in Europe and Chile.
gest eye on the sky the largest opti-
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submil cal/near-infrared telescope in the world. The total regular Member State contribu-
limeter Array (ALMA), the largest ground- When complete it will address many of tions to ESO in 2016 were approximately
based astronomy project in existence, is the most pressing unsolved questions in 159 million euros and ESO employs
a revolutionary facility for world astronomy. astronomy and may, eventually, revolution- around 660 staff.
ALMA comprises an array of 66 antennas ise our perception of the Universe, much
of 12 and 7 metres in diameter observing as Galileos telescope did 400 years ago. Artists rendering of the Extremely Large Telescope
at millimetre and submillimetre wave- Construction work is ongoing on Cerro on top of Cerro Armazones.
ESO/L. Calada
In 2004, Council agreed a strategy for improve sensitivity and reliability while location for the southern hemisphere
ESO that has guided decisions and invest- enabling new modes, have maintained elements of the Cherenkov Telescope
ments over the last decade and more. the competitiveness of existing instru- Array (CTA), agreement has been reached
The key elements of the strategy can be ments, such as the VLT Imager and for ESO to operate and participate in the
summarised as follows: Spectrometer for mid-InfraRed (VISIR) CTA project. ESO is thus developing into
Retention of astronomical leadership and, in the near future, the upgraded a truly multi-messenger observatory.
and excellence into the era of extremely CRyogenic InfraRed Echelle Spectrome- The outreach and public education activi-
large telescopes by carefully balancing ter (CRIRES+). Other instruments are ties have also grown substantially, with
investment; in the pipeline, focusing the two largest the construction of the ESO Supernova
Completion of ALMA and efficient telescopes on LaSilla on exoplanet and Planetarium & Visitor Centre at G
arching
exploitation of its superb scientific transient source science, and providing promising to raise ESOs profile even
capabilities; them with another decade of front-line higher in the future.
Ensuring that operational support of use. Meanwhile the Enhanced Resolution
the VLT remains effective, with regular Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS), a capa- I am delighted to note the major achieve-
upgrades and new instrumentation to ble adaptive optics instrument that will ments in all of the key areas of ESOs
maintain competitiveness; exploit the AOF and deliver enhanced programme in 2016. The development
E xploitation of the unique capabilities imaging and spectroscopic performance, of new facilities and capabilities, together
of the VLT Interferometer; is under development. There is no doubt with upgrades of existing infrastructure
Construction of an extremely large tele- that ESO continues to provide the worlds and instruments in a balanced programme,
scope on a competitive time scale most comprehensive and advanced suite is maintaining ESOs pre-eminence in
through radical strategic planning and of astronomical facilities at optical and ground-based astronomy. The excellent
by seeking additional funds for fast infrared wavelengths. results summarised in this report result
implementation. from a great deal of hard work by talented
Construction of ALMA is complete. The and dedicated staff at ESO and at insti-
A comprehensive description of devel ALMA Residencia, the last major compo- tutes in the Member States. ESOs efficient
opments since the Council Resolution nent of the ALMA Observatory infrastruc- administrative and technical staff support
of 2004, together with the perspectives ture, will be completed and occupied in collaborative projects on all scales, from
and strategy for the future, have been 2017. Many observing modes have been the biggest telescope projects in the
presented by the Director General in the commissioned, enabling a wide range of world to small groups of individuals devel-
article Reaching New Heights in Astron- projects, including the first programmes oping ideas and proposals. Council is
omy in The Messenger. It is gratifying exploiting very long baseline (continental very grateful to everyone who has con-
to review the current state of ESOs pro- scale) interferometry (VLBI). A great deal tributed to another remarkably successful
gramme in the light of this strategy. of experience in operating ALMA in the year of scientific endeavour and progress.
challenging environment of the Chajnantor
Over the last decade, the second genera- plateau has been gained, and breathtak-
tion of VLT instruments has been brought ing images and spectra have confirmed
into operation and the programme of its transformational capabilities. It is
upgrades to the infrastructure on P aranal, especially gratifying to note that astrono-
which was required to accommodate mers from ESOs Member States submit
the second-generation VLTI instruments the largest number of proposals to use
and exploit the incoherent combined ALMA and have the highest productivity
focus of the VLT, has now largely been when it comes to publishing the scientific
completed. The VST and VISTA survey results. A vision for the future enhance-
telescopes have complemented the deep ment and operation of ALMA to 2030 is Patrick Roche
narrower-field capabilities of the VLT, now being developed with our partners in President of Council
further enhancing the scientific grasp of North America and East Asia.
the Observatory. The second-generation
VLTI instruments have begun commis- In 2016, Council approved an ambitious
sioning and will be completed in the next schedule for the first phase of the ELT.
two years, further increasing ESOs capa- First light is planned for 2024, and the
bilities at the highest spatial resolution in major contracts for the telescope, optics
the optical/infrared. and enclosure have been let within the
available budget envelope.
At the same time, commissioning of the
Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF), which In fact, ESOs programme has developed
further enhances the image quality for even more broadly than envisaged in
a variety of instruments, is continuing, the 2004 strategy resolution. Following a
with excellent results obtained to date. site selection process that identified the
A number of instrument upgrades, which Paranal concession as the preferred
In 2016 ESO was set firmly on the road contract ever placed by ESO and may be
Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO
to achieving first light with the Extremely the largest single contract in ground-
Large Telescope in late 2024, in time for based astronomy to date. Council decid-
scientific overlap with the James Webb ed to allow placement of all Phase 1 ELT
Space Telescope (JWST) and ahead of contracts on a schedule that results in
the competing giant telescope projects. first light of Phase 1 ELT in late 2024. This,
ESOs telescopes enabled many remark- together with the hedging of the Chilean
able discoveries in 2016, including the Peso, lowers overall cost and risk and
detection of a rocky planet in the habita- provides earlier science return. By the end
ble zone of the nearest star, Proxima of the year, contract approvals by Finance
Centauri, which garnered world-wide Committee had reached nearly 80% of
attention. the material costs of Phase 1, with an
acceptable level of contingency remaining.
President Rousseff of Brazil visited Phase 2 of ELT construction is not (yet)
Santiago in February, and publicly recog- funded, but a stepwise implementation is
nised the importance of Brazilian mem- being pursued, with a first goal of ensur-
bership of ESO. The political situation ing that the full primary mirror is in place
in Brazil remains complex, and activities at first light.
continue to convince interim President
Temer to sign the accession agreement, The first stone of the new substation
which was ratified by Congress in 2015. connecting Paranal and Armazones to
Discussions took place with Hungary, the Chilean electrical grid was placed
Ireland and Norway on potential acces- on 27 May, in the presence of Chilean
sion, and a strategic partnership with dignitaries. The project is on schedule ALMAs observing efficiency has contin-
Australia is under discussion. for completion in mid-2017, which will ued to increase and many discoveries
allow the construction of the ELT to use were made, but challenges have arisen
On Paranal, all four lasers of the Laser grid power instead of relying on diesel with the calibration and imaging data
Guide Star Facility (LGSF) were com generators. reduction which will require attention.
missioned in April. The new Deformable The Residencia, the final ALMA construc-
Secondary Mirror (DSM) saw first light on LaSilla now runs on solar power, and tion deliverable from ESO, was complet-
24October. The commissioning of the the aging infrastructure is being upgrad- ed in September. It is a striking building,
GRound-layer Adaptive optics Assisted ed. The new instruments the Near designed by the Finnish architects Kouvo
by Lasers (GRAAL) and Ground Atmos- Infra Red Planet Searcher (NIRPS) for the and Partanen, and will be ready for occu-
pheric Layer Adaptive optiCs for Spectro- ESO 3.6-metre and Son Of X-Shooter pation in 2017. The AEM antenna con-
scopic Imaging (GALACSI) units in 2017 (SOXS) on the NTT are making pro- tract was formally closed out in February,
will complete the entire AOF, allowing dif- gress, as are the new hosted telescopes, when the warranty on the 25th antenna
fraction-limited imaging and spectrosco- Exoplanets in Transits and their Atmos- expired. A celebration of this milestone,
py with Unit Telescope 4. Installation of pheres (ExTrA) and the Multi-site All Sky for all those involved, took place at ESO
the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exo- CAmeRA (MASCARA), both devoted to Headquarters on 14 June, marking what
planet and Stable Spectroscopic Obser- exoplanets. was at the time the largest contract ESO
vations (ESPRESSO), which will be able had ever placed, and one which required
to use any or all of the Unit Telescopes, The completion of the basic construction much work to stay in budget.
is on course. The GRAVITY instrument of the building (topping out), including
for the VLTI made excellent progress, installation of the Star-roof, for the ESO In December, Council approved ESOs
and is ready for the forthcoming Galactic Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre participation in the CTA as an additional
Centre passage of the S2 star. The con- took place on 25 April, and everything is supplementary programme. This allows
tract for the 4-metre Multi-Object Spectro- on track for the official opening in the first ESO to join the CTA partnership, and
scopic Telescope (4MOST) instrument for half of 2018. operate CTA-South on the P aranal prem-
VISTA was signed. High-level visitors to ises on a cost-reimbursement basis
Paranal included Dutch foreign minister APEX celebrated ten years of science including provision of observing time
Koenders, Max Planck Society President operations in January and received a very reserved for Member States and for Chile.
Stratmann, many ambassadors and positive external review. In December This will expand ESOs programme to
senior representatives from EIROforum. Council approved the extension of APEX observing the high-energy Universe from
operations for the period 20182022. the ground.
The contract for the Dome and Main ESOs share will increase to 32 %, with
Structure of the ELT was signed on the Max Planck Society taking 55 % Collective bargaining with the local staff
25 May, in the presence of Minister and Sweden 13 %. New instrumentation in Chile took place in November, and
Giannini (Italy), completing a three-year and an antenna upgrade are part of the resulted in a three-year contract. The
procurement process. It is the largest extension. working group reviewing the rules for
Tim de Zeeuw
ESO Director General
Guidance provided by the Directorate Observing time on our telescopes is The resulting flow of high-impact publi
for Science (DSC) underpins all sci- ESOs most precious commodity. Over- cations is testimony to the brilliance of
ence-related projects at ESO. DSC subscription rates are sometimes driven our community, the productivity and
is home to the Offices for Science to uncomfortable levels by a demanding quality of the ESO Observatories, and the
and the ESO libraries, one of each in community with high expectations, a remarkable data obtained. The highlights
V itacura and Garching, as well as community that now leads the world in presented here are but a small sample
to the Observing Programmes Office, many areas of astronomy and which con- of the many fascinating results published
the Project Scientists, the VLT, VLTI, tinues to grow in number and in stature. during 2016.
ALMA and ELT Programme Scientists,
the education and Public Outreach
Department (ePOD) and last but
most certainly not least the ESO
Fellows and Students. An Earth-mass planet in the habitable zone around the
DSC could be accused of being nearest star
careless in 2016, saying farewell to
some fine scientists. Olivier Hainaut
left ePOD to take up a new role as Planets have now been found around of only 0.15 % of the Suns and a surface
End-to-End Scientist in the Data many stars, but in many cases the temperature of 3050 K. Proxima Cen
Management and Operations Division. detected exoplanets are rather extreme is currently at a distance of 1.30 parsecs
The VLTI Programme Scientist, Jean- when compared to the planets of the and revolves around a Cen in about
Philippe Berger, returned to Grenoble, Solar System. They are either Jupiter- 550000 years, in an orbit that has a
and the Deputy Director for Science, sized planets in close orbits or planets major axis twice the size of the minor axis
Dietrich Baade, retired after a long with very large separations from their (an eccentricity of 0.5).
and distinguished career at ESO. host star. These findings result from the
DSC welcomed Anthony Mroczkowski detection methods. The radial velocity These nearest stars have been the targets
and Anna Brucalassi to the group of method, whereby the reflex motion of of radial velocity surveys and have been
Project Scientists. Several others are the star induced by the gravitational pull observed with the UV-visual Echelle
en route to join DSC in 2017. of the planet is measured, favours the Spectrograph (UVES), between 2000 and
detection of massive, close-by planets; 2008, and the High Accuracy Radial
while direct imaging relies on offset dis- velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS). A dedi-
tances sufficiently large that the planet(s) cated HARPS campaign over 2.5 months
can be separated from the host star. was used to eliminate period ambiguities
and simultaneous photometric measure-
The nearest stars to the Sun, Alpha ments were made from several observa-
CentauriA and B, are two Sun-like stars tories. Combining 216 radial velocity
in a binary system at a distance of epochs (from UVES and HARPS) for the
1.33parsecs. They are also orbited by analysis, a periodicity of 11.2 days was
an M dwarf, Proxima Cen, which has a determined with very high significance
mass of 0.1221 0.0022 MA, a luminosity (false-alarm probability less than 10 7).
8
UVES
HARPS pre-2016
6 HARPS
4
RV (m s 1)
4
This colour image from FORS2 on the VLT shows
the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC1055, prominently Radial velocity variations of Proxima
displaying dust lanes and star-forming regions in 0 2 4 6 8 10 Centauri as a function of phase.
the disc of the galaxy. Phase (days) From Anglada-Escud et al., 2016.
Cosmological shapes
& B. Giblin/ESO
The growth of structure in the Universe is
directly determined by the underlying
cosmology. A larger amount of matter
forms clumps faster, but if the expansion
of the Universe is accelerated, then
clumping becomes more difficult and the (Upper) Map of dark matter from the
KiDS survey. The image shows dense
growth is slowed. By measuring the cos- 1.2 KiDS-450
(light) and empty (dark) regions.
mic shear, the formation of structure can CFHTLenS (MID J16)
be traced and the cosmological parame- WMAP9+ACT+SPT
ters determined. Planck15
1.0
In contrast to strong lensing, where the
8
The Kilo Degrees Survey (KiDS) with the distortions across the large field of view. on 15 million galaxy images over 450
VST was specifically designed for cosmic KiDS aims at imaging 1500 square square degrees. The KiDS sample repre-
shear measurements. The VST camera, degrees of the extragalactic sky in four sents the current best cosmic shear
OmegaCAM, provides excellent ground- filters across the optical band (ugri). In a measurement, considering the combina-
based image quality with minimal image first data release, analysis was performed tion of area, depth and image quality.
The formation of massive stars (greater CONICA (NACO) and Astronomical Multi- This points towards IRAS172163801
than 10 MA) is understood to involve BEam combineR (AMBER) observations, being a very young system (just a few
accretion from circumstellar discs able to was known to be a massive proto-binary, hundred thousand years old).
overcome the radiation pressure of the was observed in the Science Verification
light emitted by the protostar. Models (SV) programme of GRAVITY. The obser- Additionally, the GRAVITY spectro-
compatible with this scenario, however, vations, performed with the AT compact interferometric data clearly show the
fail to explain the observational evidence configuration (baselines ranging from 11 hydrogen Brackett- line and carbon
that most (if not all) of these massive stars to 34 metres) confirmed the binary nature monoxide (CO) band-heads in emission.
are in multiple systems. Observing star of the object and allowed for aperture The analysis of the Br- line shows that
formation is, however, challenging for sev- synthesis imaging, using the AMBER+ the less massive southern component (B)
eral reasons: the protostar is enshrouded GRAVITY dataset. The final image has a is accreting more than the more massive
in gas and dust, making it visible only resolution of 3 milliarcseconds and clearly northern component (A), which was
at longer wavelengths; and angular reso- shows two point sources, each surround- already suspected from CRyogenic Infra-
lution of a few milli-arcseconds is usually ed by an accretion disc. Red Echelle Spectrometer (CRIRES)
required since star-forming regions are spectro-astrometric data. More interest-
distant and protostars are compact (a few Guided by the image, a morphological ing still, the GRAVITY data put the CO
hundreds of au). These challenges make model could be fitted to the data. This emission between the two proto-stars,
facilities like ALMA and the VLTI uniquely model is composed of two stars, their indicating gas streams between the
equipped to study star formation. discs (elongated and with inner gaps) and two accretion discs. These observations
a larger component filling the interfero- clearly demonstrate the capabilities of
The newly arrived VLTI instrument metric field of view, likely a circumbinary GRAVITY as a spectro-interferometric
GRAVITY, which combines the light from disc and detected with NACO in L-band. imager of complex objects, providing new
four telescopes in the infrared (K-band) is It is not clear why the circumstellar discs constraints on models of the formation of
particularly suited to this task. IRAS17216 are not aligned with the binary axis, but massive stars.
3801, which, thanks to earlier NAOS- tidal forces will eventually align them.
0.80 0.80
100 100
Dec (mas)
0.60 0.60
Dec (mas)
Intensity
Intensity
0 0
0.40 0.40
100 100
0.20 0.20
30
0.80 5. 5
ma
s
15 Image of IRAS172163801
A from NACO in J-band, the
Dec (mas)
0
as
Jy/beam km/s
active galactic nuclei. In recent years, 15
feedback models have started to depart
from the simplified assumption of steady 0
10
12.5 %
Rapidly cooling
X-ray atmosphere Buoyant X-ray bubbles
0
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Michigan State Univ/G. Voit et al;
12.5 %
25 %
30 kpc (20) 500 0 +500 +1000
Velocity (km/sec)
ALMA continues to demonstrate its gas in high-redshift galaxies. These medium in local starburst galaxies. Never-
effectiveness at exploring the interstellar initial exploratory studies demonstrate theless, the [C II] luminosity per unit
medium in galaxies in the deep high- the effectiveness of ALMA at performing star formation rate in the low-metallicity,
redshift Universe. Surveys of the Hubble high-redshift spectroscopic surveys and high-redshift Universe is much lower
Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) by two separate serve as preparation for deeper explora- (by roughly a factor of 10) than in the
teams have started to reveal the potential tion that is currently being executed at higher-metallicity Local Universe, making
of ALMA for blind explorations of the ALMA. these studies a challenging enterprise,
deep Universe. The initial results, currently even for the high sensitivity of ALMA. The
based on limited area and sensitivity sur- Several studies of high-redshift galaxies detection of other fine-structure lines is
veys, show that ALMA is able to resolve beyond z~6 have shown that ALMA can also challenging at this redshift, although
the submillimetre continuum cosmic back- indeed probe the interstellar medium of a potential detection of the [O III] 88 m
ground into discrete sources, and detect these objects with the [C II] 158 m line, line at z ~ 7.2 has been reported.
molecular (CO) and singly ionised carbon the strongest coolant of the interstellar
B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); NASA/ESA Hubble
Integrating science Zahed is deeply involved. Before joining (Dashboard for Operational Metrics at
ESO, he was a core member of the Near- ESO) project (http://www.eso.org/intra/
One of the central missions for the Offices Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI, on org2013/doo/dmo/support/dome.html),
for Science is to enable cutting-edge Gemini South) planet-finding campaign, a which provides systematic views of key
research by ESO astronomers, as a key direct imaging search for planets around operational performance indicators.
ingredient of ESOs mission. The Offices hundreds of stars. He has contributed
for Science foster the provision of the to understanding the formation mecha- Francesca is currently the chair of the
best support to the user community, help nism and dynamical evolution of planets ESO Faculty (since 2013) and, since
maintain the excellence of the facilities, in wide orbits, to the study of brown 2014, of the Scientific Personnel Com
assist the community in achieving even dwarf atmospheres and to novel planet- mittee that evaluates ESOs current and
higher goals and promote the use of detection algorithms, among other topics. future scientific staff. During the last
instruments at their very limits. Zahed is currently working hard to under- decade, Francesca has devoted a signifi-
stand planet formation, taking images cant part of her time to gender studies,
Until now, the scientific and functional of young systems, like Beta Pictoris, with organising and promoting dedicated
evaluations of ESO astronomers were the aim of precisely measuring features activities, both inside and outside ESO.
conducted in parallel by the respective in their discs equivalent to the asteroids She has had several roles on interna-
(science and line) managers, leading to and Kuiper Belt objects in the Solar Sys- tional committees for the advancement
a fragmented view of staff performance, tem. In his most recent collaboration, with of women in astronomy and is currently
goals, projects and objectives. We have Hiroshi Kobayashi at Nagoya University, chair of the Organising Committee of the
now moved to a fully integrated scheme, he is trying to determine the sizes, total IAU Working Group on Women in Astron-
in which the science evaluation, still led mass and distribution of the boulders that omy. In summer 2016, in recognition of
by the science managers (Heads of the will eventually build the protoplanets in her scientific standing, her operational
Office together with the Director for Sci- these systems. background and her strong involvement
ence), directly feeds the Performance in promoting gender equality and diver
Management and Professional Develop- Francesca Primas joined ESO as a Fellow sity in astronomy, she was awarded an
ment (PMPD) process. Line managers in 1997, providing support to the testing International Centre for Radio Astronomy
thus have a complete view of both the and Science Verification of UVES before Research (ICRAR) Visiting Fellowship for
functional and science roles in discus- it arrived on the VLT. She then became a Senior Women in Astronomy.
sions with their staff. This is still a learning staff member in the User Support Depart-
process, but it has already significantly ment (USD), within the Data Management Adele Plunkett arrived at ESO in late 2015
helped both the members of the Science and Operations Division. Scientifically, just after finishing her PhD at Yale Univer-
Faculty and the (science/line) managers to Francesca is interested in uncovering the sity; Adeles PhD dissertation received
obtain a consistent view of past achieve- nature of galaxy formation and evolution the Robert L. Brown Outstanding Doc-
ments and future objectives. Beyond the via a detailed analysis of the chemical toral Dissertation Award administered
formal need for individual assessments, history. This work ties together different by the Association of Universities Inc.
this is a critical asset to further address astrophysical fields, including primordial (AUI) and the National Radio Astronomy
the career development of science staff. and stellar nucleosynthesis, Galactic and Observatory (NRAO). She is an ESO Chile
extragalactic chemical evolution, TypeII Fellow and, with duties at ALMA and in
and/or Type I supernovae, stellar atmos- V itacura, Adele plays an active role in
Highlights pheres and cosmology. During her career, promoting science activities at ESO and
Francesca has tackled different elements ALMA. Along with the other ALMA fellows,
To illustrate the richness of skills amongst (from the very light to very heavy), different Adele organises the Joint ALMA Obser-
the science staff, the profiles and achieve- environments (thin/thick discs and halo vatory (JAO) colloquium series and the
ments of several senior and junior ESO populations) and different galaxies (from weekly astro-ph discussion. As part of her
researchers are highlighted. the Milky Way to the Magellanic Clouds ALMA duties, she has contributed as a
and Local Group galaxies). member of the ALMA Proposal Handling
Zahad Wahhaj joined ESO in 2012 as a Team and the ALMA Review Panel as a
Faculty astronomer. His area of expertise In the USD, she was the main support technical secretary, gaining an in-depth
is adaptive optics instrumentation. He astronomer for the high-resolution VLT view of the ALMA proposal selection pro-
recently took over as lead instrument sci- instruments UVES and the Fibre Large cess. Adele is also an active member
entist for the Spectro-Polarimetric High- Array Multi-Element Spectrograph of the ESO Fellowships and Studentships
contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument (FLAMES). Between 2006 and 2015, Selection Committee and she is gaining
(SPHERE). He also serves as the coordi- she led the department and was respon- her first experience of chairing the Scien-
nator for Unit Telescope 3 (UT3) which sible for supporting the full range of VLT tific and Local Organising Committees for
hosts the instruments VISIR, VIMOS and instruments in service observing, for the the ESO workshop Star Formation from
SPHERE. upgrade of the operational tools required Cores to Clusters, to be held in Vitacura
by the start of the Public Surveys on in March 2017.
The hunt for, and study of, extrasolar VISTA and the VST, and for the establish-
planets is a hot topic, and one in which ment and first release of the DOME
Zahad Wahhaj.
surviving companions of these explo-
sions. Most recently, using VLT spectros-
copy, he was able to rule out the surviv-
ing companions as the progenitor of the
oldest known TypeIa supernova remnant
RCW86 (SN185).
ESO/VISTA VMC
3.6-metre HARPS 110 94 538 100.0 % 242 100.0 % 2.22 338 100.0 %
Total 110 94 538 242 2.22 338
ALMA Band Requested proposals Requested hours Scheduled proposals (A+B) Scheduled hours (A+B) Pressure (by hours)
All/ESO All/ESO All/ESO All/ESO All/ESO
3 523/231 3738/1840 148/46 794/309 4.71/5.95
4 142/62 672/250 41/15 127/46 5.29/5.43
6 747/300 4778/2034 237/84 1323/473 3.61/4.30
7 561/240 3108/1432 172/57 836/229 3.72/6.25
8 83/37 308/133 28/15 113/55 2.73/2.42
9 76/30 279/98 23/9 63/17 4.43/5.76
10 17/6 50/23 2/0 1/0 50.0/inf
Total 1571/657 12933/5810 475/226 3257/1129 3.97/5.15
In 2016 there was a steep increase in VLT/VLTI LaSilla Survey APEX ALMA Total
the number of refereed papers that use telescopes
ESO data in the research they present. 1996 350 350
With 940 articles published in a single
1997 389 389
year, the ESO user community has set a
new all-time record, surpassing last 1998 405 405
years number of papers by more than 1999 29 324 348
70. About 60 % of these papers involved 2000 52 300 342
VLT/VLTI data, while around 20 % were 2001 105 316 399
provided by facilities located at LaSilla.
2002 159 288 408
Both observing sites show a stable out-
put of data papers in comparison with 2003 260 305 512
previous years. 11% of all ESO data 2004 342 316 588
papers utilised observations made with 2005 359 297 607
the survey telescopes VISTA and VST,
2006 413 279 12 640
while 5 % and 14 % of the papers used
2007 495 312 1 718
data obtained during APEX and ALMA
ESO observing time, respectively. VISTA 2008 486 289 8 689
with VST, APEX and ALMA were the larg- 2009 473 260 15 660
est motors for the increase in papers in 2010 510 277 2 28 738
2016, as their productivity has increased
2011 555 286 13 27 786
since 2015 by 15 % (from 94 to 108
papers), 48 % (33 to 49), and an impres- 2012 614 270 30 40 16 865
sive 76 % (73 to 129), respectively. 2013 565 273 38 44 40 840
2014 563 267 73 47 47 871
The numbers of papers resulting from 2015 555 211 94 33 73 865
the individual observing sites, as well
2016 566 198 108 49 129 940
as the total number per year, are shown
in the table. An overview of ESO publica- Total 7101 6212 358 304 305 12 960
tion statistics is available on a dedicated
webpage (http://www.eso.org/sci/libraries/ Refereed papers using ESO data, 19962016. national allocations of time) are not included.
Papers can use data from more than one facility. Survey telescopes: papers using data generated by
telbib_pubstats_overview.html), which
VLT/VLTI: papers using data generated by VLT and ESOs survey telescopes VISTA and VST.
includes links to the corresponding VLTI instruments, including visitor instruments for APEX: papers using data generated by APEX,
records in the telbib database. which observing time is recommended by the ESO including visitor instruments for which observing
OPC, for example, VLT ULTRACAM, VLTI PIONIER. time is recommended by the ESO OPC, for example,
LaSilla: papers using data generated by facilities Z-Spec. Only papers based (entirely or partly) on
A total of 566 refereed papers published
on LaSilla, including visitor instruments for which ESO APEX time are included.
in 2016 were based on VLT/VLTI data with observing time is recommended by the ESO OPC, ALMA: papers using data generated by ALMA. Only
UVES and FORS being the most produc- for example, NTT ULTRACAM. Papers based on papers based (entirely or partly) on European ALMA
tive instruments again, contributing to data from non-ESO telescopes or observations time are included.
obtained during reserved periods (for example
123 and 118 papers respectively. Perhaps
surprisingly, the Multi Unit Spectroscopic
Explorer (MUSE), which entered opera- data have led to 46 papers so far 70 % This number is quite stunning, considering
tions in 2014, already appears among the of all the 66 papers published to 2016; that the number of facilities operated by
top five most productive VLT instruments for SPHERE, the equivalent number of ESO on LaSilla has decreased over the
in 2016; it almost tripled its number of commissioning and Science Verification past years. For instance, the Wide Field
publications from 17 in 2015 to 47 in papers was 49 % of the total by the end Imager (WFI), which has not been operat-
2016. SPHERE, for which observing data of 2016 (22 out of 45 papers). ed by ESO since October 2013, contrib-
started to appear in publications only last uted data obtained during ESO observing
year, has increased its productivity by The pie chart (following page) shows time to 15 refereed papers. The statistics
almost a factor of two (16 papers in 2015, VLT/VLTI instruments, ranked by the of individual LaSilla instruments are once
29 in 2016). number of papers to which they contribut- again led by HARPS, which produced
ed in 2016. Further statistics for individual 83papers in 2016, accounting for more
An integral part of the commissioning of instruments can be found in the Basic than 40 % of all papers from this observ-
a new instrument at the VLT is the Sci- ESO Publication Statistics report, availa- ing site (83 out of 198).
ence Verification phase, which includes a ble at http://www.eso.org/sci/libraries/
set of scientific observations chosen to edocs/ESO/ESOstats.pdf. As usual, non-ESO telescopes and
verify and demonstrate to the community instruments hosted at LaSilla, such as
the instruments capabilities. For MUSE, Almost 200 papers used data from LaSilla the Swiss 1.2-metre Leonhard Euler Tele-
commissioning and Science Verification telescopes operated by ESO in 2016. scope, the Gamma-Ray burst Optical/
The Directorate of Operations is Operations were invested in the installation and com-
responsible for all activities related missioning of the 4LGSF and 62 nights for
to science operations, including the The VLT at Paranal operates with four the installation of the DSM and its com-
preparation and execution of observ- 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes (UT) and a missioning in non-adaptive optics mode.
ing programmes, the operation of the suite of nine first-generation instruments
LaSilla Paranal Observatory (LPO) and three of the four second-generation Of the available science time for the VLT,
at its LaSilla, Paranal and Chajnantor instruments. The LGSF on UT4 provides 2.8 % was lost to technical problems and
sites, and the delivery of raw and cali- an artificial reference star to one of the about 12.7 % to adverse weather condi-
brated data. This role involves user three instruments on the VLT supported tions. On LaSilla bad weather accounted
support, dataflow management, opera- by adaptive optics. The VLTI combines for losses of about 22.3 %, and technical
tions technical support and the devel- the light of either the four UTs or the four problems for about 0.8 %. VISTA delivered
opment and maintenance of a science ATs to feed one of the three interfero 294 nights of survey observations out
archive provided by the Data Manage- metric instruments with a coherent wave- of 363 scheduled and the VST delivered
ment and Operations (DMO) Division. front. The survey telescopes VISTA and 288 nights of survey observations out of
The SAF holds all the data obtained the VST are in regular operation. 359 scheduled. Both survey telescopes
with ESO telescopes as well as highly were affected by about 17.2 % weather
processed, advanced products derived On LaSilla, the NTT and 3.6-metre losses. The technical losses for VISTA
from them. In addition the Directorate telescopes operate with an instrumen are, at 1.7 %, now noticeably smaller than
of Operations includes ESOs contri- tation suite of three instruments. The those for the UTs. For the VST, the posi-
bution to ALMA operations and devel- LaSilla site also supports seven hosted tive trend of reduced technical losses has
opment through the European ALMA telescope projects. continued and reached 2.5 % for the first
Support Centre (EASC). time, a value comparable to the UTs.
The Observatory further provides opera-
This years highlights include the tional support for APEX with its 12-metre The 2014 16 El Nio event led to excep-
increasing scientific productivity of sub-mm radio antenna located on the tionally high weather losses at the obser-
ALMA, with over 80 % of the delivered high plateau of C
hajnantor at an altitude vatories, culminating in May with some
data sets producing at least one pub- of 5100 metres; it has a suite of hetero- 30 % losses for the UTs, 40 % for the sur-
lished science paper within 3 years. dyne and bolometer facility instruments vey telescopes and 70 % at LaSilla,
By the end of the year ALMA data and several visitor instruments. though followed by a quick improvement.
have been used in 557 refereed publi- From August, the weather patterns had
cations. ALMA Band 5 receivers have For Periods 97 and 98 the scientific com- mostly returned to the seasonal normal.
been built and are being installed, munity submitted respectively 1020 and
ready to be offered in Cycle 5. Con- 901 Phase 1 observing proposals for the Complementing regular VLT operations,
struction of the ALMA Residence was LPO including APEX. These figures mark the VLTI was scheduled for an additional
completed. APEX achieved a new a return to the stable level seen across 136 nights to execute scientific obser
record of more than 4763 hours of on- Periods 90 to 95 and document the con- vations using baselines with either the
sky science time. Two new science tinuing high demand for ESO observing UTs or the ATs. Of the scheduled VLTI
instruments are being developed for facilities. Some 85 % of the proposals are science time, 7.7 % was lost to technical
the NTT and the 3.6-metre telescope, for the P aranal site with the VLT, VLTI, problems, and 16.3 % to bad weather.
and the LaSilla Observatory is now VST and VISTA. Seventy engineering nights and 140 com-
powered by solar energy. At the Paranal missioning nights were invested during
Observatory, GRAVITY began science The Observatory continued its efficient 2016 in the continued commissioning of
operation with the ATs and continued operation via the high availability and the VLTI infrastructure and GRAVITY with
commissioning with the UTs, and the low technical downtime of its telescopes the ATs and UTs.
AOF commissioning of the 4 Laser and instruments key elements for pro-
Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) and the ductive scientific observations. In 2016, The combination of high operational effi-
DSM on UT4 have been exciting devel- a total of 1886 nights were scheduled for ciency, system reliability and availability
opments. DMO has deployed a web- scientific observations with the four UTs of the LaSilla and Paranal telescopes and
based Phase 2 user interface in at the VLT and with the two major tele- instruments for scientific observations
Paranal and MUSE science data prod- scopes at LaSilla. This is equivalent to has again resulted in a high scientific pro-
ucts are now routinely produced and about 86 % of the total number of nights ductivity. The statistical breakdown is
distributed through the SAF. in principle available over the whole year. presented in the Publication Digest (p.27).
The remaining 14 % have been scheduled Since starting operations in 1999, the VLT
for planned engineering and maintenance and VLTI have produced a total of 7101
activities to guarantee the continued per- publications and add a further dozen
formance of the telescopes and instru- every week. Interestingly the veteran work-
The 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT)
ments and include time slots for commis- horse instruments UVES and FORS2
at the LaSilla Observatory aligned with the Bulge sioning new instruments and facilities. both commissioned at the same time as
of the Milky Way. On UT4, 33 nights of commissioning time the VLT still lead the publication statis-
North (mas)
0
50
50 0 50
East (mas)
The DSM and two of the four Laser Guide Star Units ing of the four STS for the UTs were Reconstructed image of the GRAVITY observations
of the 4LGSF on UT4. of the Galactic Centre, showing the star S2 and the
combined with upgrades of the four
detection of a flare associated with the black hole.
existing Multiple Application Curvature
of GRAVITY, the Beam Combiner Instru- Adaptive Optics (MACAO) modules and
ment (BCI), was moved into the VLTI lab- the preparations for the installation of the the Galactic Centre with the complete
oratory in early October of 2015 and the Coud Infrared Adaptive Optics (CIAO) GRAVITY system. On September 20 and
first fringes with four ATs were obtained wavefront sensing systems for GRAVITY. 21 the last nights on which the Galactic
shortly after. The commissioning of the First fringes of the STS with four UTs and Centre could still be observed by the VLTI
imaging mode of GRAVITY with the ATs the Precision Integrated Optics Near- this year the observations succeeded.
progressed according to plan, allowing infrared Imaging ExpeRiment (PIONIER) This event marked a major milestone
this mode to be offered to the community were obtained in February and commis- for the fruitful collaboration between the
from October. sioning was completed in March, just in GRAVITY Consortium and ESO.
time for the first GRAVITY commissioning
Commissioning GRAVITY with the UTs with the UTs. ESPRESSO is a fibre-fed, cross-
requires four Star Separator (STS) dispersed, high-resolution chelle spectro-
systems to operate in the coud focus Excellent atmospheric conditions on graph and can be considered a super-
stations of the four UTs. The STS is an 18May allowed an early critical test of HARPS. With a radial velocity precision
opto-mechanical system, designed to GRAVITY: the first observations of the of better than 10 cm s 1, Earth-mass
separate the light from two astronomical Galactic Centre with four UTs using the planets in the habitable zone of a low-
objects and feed it into the interferometer optical wavefront sensors of MACAO. mass star can be detected by this high-
to allow simultaneous interferometric Inspired by this success, the installation precision, ultra-stable instrument.
observation of the two objects or to use of the four CIAO units in the coud focus ESPRESSO uses the incoherent focus
one of the two objects as a reference stations of the four UTs was concluded of the VLT located in the combined coud
source. The installation and commission- just in time to attempt an observation of laboratory where a front-end unit picks
up the light from any one, or all four,
UTs and feeds it to the spectrograph.
ESO/ESPRESSO Consortium
ESO/G. Lambert
of prisms, mirrors and lenses which
deliver the pupil and the image from the
telescope to the combined coud labo
ratory and it also includes an atmos
pheric dispersion compensator (ADC).
The use of mainly refractive optics and
total internal reflection inside the prisms
ensures the highest throughput, espe
cially in the blue region of the spectrum.
During 2016, three of the four coud
trains were installed and first light was
achieved in the combined coud labora-
tory using the complete chain of relay
optics from UT4 on 26September, just
before UT4 went out of operation for the
installation of the DSM. The first light of
the coud train deployed on UT1 was
obtained on 13December.
Obsolescence projects this year with the last installation on UT2 The domes of the two first SPECULOOS telescopes,
shortly after their installation in November 2016 at
The extensive work on the 8-metre coat- during the M1 coating in December.
Paranal Observatory.
ing unit continued during the year accord-
ing to the work plan and under contract Hosted telescopes at Paranal
to the Danish company Polyteknik AS. A second hosted telescope project, research community. In addition, the
After completion of the refurbishment pro- SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets high-speed, triple-beam imager ULTRA-
ject and successful recommissioning EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars), is comple- CAM was offered up to 25 % of NTT time
of the 8-metre coating unit, the primary mentary to the Next Generation Transit in exchange for cash contributions to
mirror (M1) of UT1 was recoated at the Survey (NGTS) telescope already operat- NTT operations. The NIRPS project will
end of August 1014 days after the last ing, and will carry out a photometric become the red arm of HARPS on the
coating of a UT M1 mirror. The aluminium survey designed to discover Earth-sized 3.6-metre telescope, creating the most
coating achieved an average reflectivity planets transiting the brightest southern powerful opticalnear-infrared precision
of 90.5 %. A 0.16 magnitude gain in the ultra-cool stars. The SPECULOOS observ- radial velocity machine in the southern
zeropoints of FORS1 was measured on ing facility consists of four 1-metre robotic hemisphere.
sky after the reinstallation of the freshly telescopes equipped with CCD cameras
coated M1 in UT1. The second recoating, operating in the very-near-infrared. The While an agreement has been signed with
of the primary mirror of UT2 in December, civil works for the telescopes and control the consortium for the NIRPS instrument,
confirmed the successful recovery of the building were concluded this year and are the negotiations with the SOXS instru-
coating facility. ready to receive the enclosures and tele- ment consortium and the ULTRACAM
scopes early next year. consortium are still ongoing. ULTRACAM
Another ongoing obsolescence project is ready to be used at the NTT visitor
at Paranal was to align the VLT Emergen- focus; SOXS and NIRPS are expected to
cy Stop and Safety chain system with LaSilla Observatory arrive at LaSilla in 2019. SOXS would
the safety standards that have evolved then replace SOFI and EFOSC2 on the
since the construction of the VLT. With LaSilla Observatory continued to operate NTT while NIRPS would be integrated with
the deployment of the programmable successfully according to the streamlined HARPS on the 3.6-metre telescope.
logic controller (PLC) based safety chain operations model. The LaSilla 2010+
system on UT2 in 2013, UT1 and UT4 model supports the continued operation This new instrument complement at
last year and on UT3 this year, the safety of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope with LaSilla provides the Observatory with
chain project was successfully complet- HARPS, and the NTT with SOFI, EFOSC2 an exciting new perspective into the
ed, allowing a seamless integration of and visitor instruments. mid-2020s and has triggered the devel-
the critical safety systems of the 4LGSF opment of matching plans for the
on UT4. Following a call for new instruments in required extension of the lifetime of the
2014, the medium-resolution (R = 5000) observatorys infrastructure and its oper-
The obsolescence project to replace the optical and near-infrared (0.4 1.8 m) ation model.
custom-made M1 cell electronics with spectrograph SOXS was selected as the
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electron- future workhorse instrument at the NTT. LaSilla Observatory further continued to
ics, thereby ensuring the long-term avail- SOXS addresses in particular but not support scientific projects at other hosted
ability of spares, was also completed solely the needs of the time-domain telescopes, i.e., the 2.2-metre Max-
EGP/ESO
1.54-metre Danish telescope, the Swiss
1.2-metre Leonhard Euler telescope, the
Rapid Eye Mount (REM), the Tlescopes
Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires
(TAROT) South, the TRAnsiting Planets
and PlanetesImals Small Telescope
(TRAPPIST), and the ESO 1-metre tele-
scope. The LaSilla QUEST survey project
on the ESO 1-metre Schmidt telescope
was completed after eight years and
operation was discontinued as planned
at the end of March 2016. The agreement
with the Max-Planck-Insitut fr Astronomie
(MPIA, Heidelberg, Germany) for the 2.2-
metre MPG telescope has been extended
to 30September 2019. Under a new
agreement, the Universidad Catlica del
Norte (UCN), in collaboration with the
Pontificia Universidad Catlica de Chile
(PUC), has upgraded the ESO 1-metre
telescope and installed the FIber Dual Inauguration of the Enel Green Power photovoltaic available at Chajnantor. In 2016, a total
plant at LaSilla.
Echelle Optical Spectrograph (FIDEOS). of 255 days and nights were scheduled
for science observations with APEX out
The first hosted telescope at LaSilla, the has invested some US $ 3.4 million in the of which 231 could be used. This repre-
61-cm Bochum telescope installed in construction of the 1.7 MW facility. It is sented more than 4763 hours of on-sky
1968, was relocated to the Observatorio the first utility-scale PV plant in the world science time an increase of 6.5 % with
Astronmico Pocuro, (Calle Larga, Chile) to combine the use of innovative bifacial respect to 2015 and the highest number
in the Aconcagua valley after Bochum and smart PV modules with conventional of hours achieved with APEX so far.
University, Germany, donated it and its modules and not only produces power
dome to Valparaiso University, Chile. for research at the LaSilla Observatory The APEX project is a partnership
but also serves as a research facility for between the Max-Planck-Institut fr
A new telescope project by the Institut PV technologies. The PV solar plant Radioastronomie (MPIfR, Bonn, Germany,
de Plantologie et dAstrophysique de supplies LaSilla Observatory with clean 50 % share), ESO (27 % share) and the
Grenoble (IPAG, France), ExTrA, began energy through a power purchase agree- Onsala Space Observatory (OSO, Sweden,
construction during the year and science ment. The total capacity amounts to 23 % share). In ten years of science oper-
operation is expected to start in 2017 for 1.7MW and its yearly output is approxi- ation APEX has produced over 500 sci-
a period of five years. A second new pro- mately 4.75 GW h, which is delivered to ence papers and over 10000 citations,
ject, by Leiden Observatory, MASCARA Chiles Central Region Interconnected and remains a major catalyst to engage
began construction, reusing the former System (SIC). The annual output from the the ESO user community in sub-mm sci-
site of the Interface Region Imaging Spec- solar plant is equivalent to the electricity ence. The instrumental capabilities are
trograph (IRIS) helio-seismological experi- needs of approximately 2000 households highly complementary with ALMA, thanks
ment of the University of Nice. Two new and more than 50 % of the observatorys to its wide-field bolometer arrays, state-
telescope projects, BlackGEM (Radboud annual power consumption. The clean of-the-art heterodyne receivers and flexi-
University Nijmegen, the Netherlands and energy generated by the plant avoids the ble observing model, allowing optimal
University of Leuven, Belgium) and the emission of over 2000 equivalent tons use of the best weather conditions at
Test Bed T elescope (TBT, European of CO2. LaSilla Observatory is from now Chajnantor.
Space Agency, ESA) are under discussion on observing the stars powered by our
with a view to hosting them at LaSilla. own star, the Sun. Given the continued success of the pro-
ject, the APEX partners expressed a
After a two-year construction period, wish to extend the current APEX agree-
the LaSilla photovoltaic (PV) solar plant APEX ment beyond the end of 2017 after a criti-
was inaugurated on 23 September in cal external review of the status of the
the presence of the Chilean Minister of APEX continued to operate its 12-metre project. The review of the APEX project
Energy, the Spanish Ambassador, a antenna and suite of heterodyne and was held at APEX Sequitor between 22
representative of the Italian embassy, the bolometer facility instruments and visitor and 25 January, coinciding with the cele-
head of Enel Green Energy in South instruments in a quasi-continuous 24-hour bration of 10 years of successful APEX
America, several local authorities, and operation mode, which maximises the science operations. The review report
ESO representatives. Enel Green Power exploitation of the exceptional conditions strongly supports an extension of the
project to 2022, and the partners further During the celebrations to mark ten years of APEX
operations, distinguished visitors pose in the
detailed their plans for major investments
sunshine outside the APEX base station in Sequitor,
in the APEX antenna, instruments, site San Pedro de Atacama.
and infrastructure to ensure its competi-
tiveness during the fourth extension
period. By the end of the year all partners ties and therefore on the results of the
had secured the necessary funding and ongoing and future receiver developments
approvals for an extension of the APEX by the APEX partners. The Swedish-ESO
agreement until the end of 2022, on con- PI receiver for APEX (SEPIA) instrument
dition that the shares are redistributed was initially equipped with an ALMA
as MPIfR 55 %, ESO 32 %, and OSO 13 % Band 5 receiver (160 to 210GHz) but can
as of 2018. A new agreement has been host up to three ALMA-type receivers.
prepared and is expected to be signed by To take advantage of this opportunity,
the three partners early next year. ESO developed an agreement with the
Netherlands Research School of Astron-
One key component of future APEX oper- omy (NOVA) to build a dual-polarisation,
ation is to relocate all science operation double-sideband (DSB) Band 9 receiver
activities to the base at Sequitor and to (610 to 720 GHz); this was installed in
cease science operation from Chajnantor. SEPIA in early 2016. The replacement of
The SciOps-R[emote] operation model this DSB Band 9 receiver with a dual-
required the installation and commission- polarisation, sideband-separating (2SB)
ing of a new antenna drive system PLC Band 9 receiver and the construction
in February. The PLC software also con- of a third receiver band for SEPIA are
tains algorithms recently developed in expected to form part of the instrumen
collaboration between APEX, MPIfR tation plan for the extension of the APEX
and VERTEX Antennentechnik GmbH, project.
Duisburg, Germany. The Sequitor control
room has been upgraded to match the The new bolometer array ArTMiS,
requirements of remote observing. Numer- which was developed by CEA (Saclay
ous tests with the critical Sun Avoidance and G renoble, France), the Institut
System (SAS) have been conducted, dAstrophysique Spatiale (France) and
simulating remote daytime operation from the University of Manchester (UK), in
Sequitor. SciOps-R is expected to start collaboration with ESO, was successfully
regular operation with the new observing installed in May and simultaneously The 12-metre APEX telescope beneath the
blue sky, high up in the Chilean A
tacama
season in 2017. provides seven detector arrays at 350m Desert, on the C
hajnantor plateau.
and three at 450 m. The second new
The competitiveness of APEX in the era bolometer, a millimetre-wave kinetic
of a fully operational ALMA strongly inductance detector (A-MKIDS) from
depends on its instrumentation capabili- MPIfR is still being commissioned.
ESO/M. Zamani
(DMO) Division is responsible for off-site
operations for the LaSilla Paranal Obser-
vatory, including user support and back-
end operations, as well as the ESO SAF.
The Division enables our community to
use the facilities efficiently, and with high
scientific return. A development pro-
gramme for the data-flow system will
ensure that the VLT and the ELT are inte-
grated in a coherent end-to-end opera-
tions framework, to the benefit of our
users.
User Support
ALMA Residencia
design: general view of
the array of buildings.
The large V-shaped
building contains the
dining room, kitchen
and leisure facilities.
It is accompanied by
six dormitory buildings.
Views of the completed Residencia main building Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden middle of 2016, a large backlog in the
from outside and inside, and of the dormitory
and the United Kingdom, along with a quality assurance and data delivery
buildings.
centre of expertise in Portugal), with ESO to ALMA users had accumulated in all
coordinating the activities and working ALMA regions. The European ARC is
The ALMA Regional Centre in Europe closely with the ALMA Observatory. The actively engaged in reducing this backlog
ARC nodes have strong ties with their and making the delivery time as short
The ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) is the respective communities and are based as possible in the near future. To this end,
department of the EASC that is respon within observatories and universities with the ARC started running the data reduc-
sible for providing user support to the active research environments. One of the tion pipeline locally in the fourth quarter
European community and for providing strengths of the European ARC network of 2016.
operations services to the ALMA Obser- is that it brings together many of the mm/
vatory in Chile. The department interfaces submm experts throughout Europe. The By the Cycle 4 deadline on 21 April
with the integrated science operations European ARC network is actively involved 2016, 657 European ALMA observing
team and hosts subsystem scientists, in ALMA commissioning and in enhancing proposals had been submitted, com-
who provide scientific guidance to the the Observatorys capabilities. The ARC pared to a total of 1571 proposals for all
development of several key components, has been working to make ALMA acces- three ALMA regions. After the completion
such as the ALMA archive, the observ- sible to all European astronomers, to of the proposal review process in July,
ing tool, the Snooping Project Interface optimise the scientific return, and provide the PIs of the approved projects were
(SnooPI) tracking tool, and the ALMA tools to the users and the Observatory. asked to convert their Phase 1 observing
data reduction pipeline (until June 2016). projects into schedulable Phase 2 prod-
The ARC department also contributes In 2016, the European ARC has again ucts (scheduling blocks). From Cycle 4
to astronomer-on-duty shifts at the Oper- been heavily engaged in performing onwards, ALMA PIs are responsible for
ations Support Facility (OSF) in Chile. Level 2 Quality Assurance for ALMA data the process of retrieving their approved
obtained by European PIs. All Cycle 1 programmes from the archive, overseeing
The ARC department is embedded in a and 2 data were delivered before the end any scientifically motivated changes and
unique distributed network of ARC nodes of January 2016 and quality assurance submitting the Phase 2 products before
(located in the Czech Republic, France, for Cycles 3 and 4 is ongoing. By the the Phase 2 deadline. ALMA Contact
57.8 57.8
57.6 57.6
ICRS Declination
ICRS Declination
57.4 57.4
57.2 57.2
57.0 57.0
56.8 56.8
181356.6 181356.6
04 h31m38 s.48 38 s.44 38 s.41 38 s.38 04 h31m38 s.48 38 s.44 38 s.41 38 s.38
ICRS Right Ascension ICRS Right Ascension
F. Villa, INAF/IASF-Bologna
metric Band 6 SV image
(inset), compared with
a simultaneous red visi-
ble light full solar image
from the Solar Dynamics
Observatory Helio
seismic and Magnetic
Imager.
significantly. Previously it was just a a European consortium of NOVA and Development studies
simple configuration with a fixed number the Group for Advanced Receiver Devel-
of CLEAN iterations, usually leading opment (GARD) at Chalmers University, Major progress was achieved on various
to under-cleaning and failure to reach the Sweden. The project is proceeding as aspects of the ESO ALMA Upgrade Stud-
desired image quality. For Cycle 4 the planned and delivery of all 73 receivers to ies in 2016.
sensitivity calculation and cleaning thresh- Chile is expected before the end of 2017.
olds were adjusted, leading to major By the end of 2016, 41 cold cartridges Solar observing modes
improvements. These improvements had been shipped to the Observatory for The first solar observations as part of
were coded by developers at the MPIfR, integration with ALMA antennas. The ALMA Cycle 4 were carried out towards
Bonn, in close collaboration with the Warm Cartridge Assemblies (WCA) have the end of 2016. The SV data obtained in
ALMA imaging expert team. For Cycle5 all been delivered by NRAO. ESO is also previous campaigns were worked on to
further improvements are planned. responsible for supplying the required ensure proper calibration and imaging
auxiliary equipment for the Band 5 receiv- and were packaged for public release in
ers, all of which have been provided to early 2017.
ALMA Development the Observatory in 2016 as well.
Band 23 test receiver
The ALMA partnership foresees continu- The integration of Band 5 cartridges into In 2016, as part of a collaboration between
ous upgrades and the development front ends and ALMA antennas, which ESO, the University of Manchester, the
of new software, front ends (for example, started in May 2015, was progressing Science and Technology Facilities Coun-
additional receiver bands) and other reasonably well. By the end of 2016 cil (STFC, UK), the National Institute for
hardware or system capabilities during 31 cartridges had been integrated into Astrophysics (INAF, Italy), the University
the operations phase. In 2016, the SV front ends and tested in the Front End of Chile, GARD and NAOJ, the compo-
activities for Band 5 were completed and Integration Centre at the OSF. All Band 5 nents developed for a Band 2+3 test
Band 5 was approved for inclusion in receivers installed in front ends meet receiver were fully assembled, tested at
the Cycle 5 science capabilities. A report specifications. In particular, the sensitivi- room temperature and prepared for cold
on ALMA Band5 SV has appeared ty, sideband rejection ratio and polarisa- tests in the laboratories of the INAF
(TheMessenger, 167, 7, 2017). In addition, tion purity performance are well within Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale di Bologna.
a number of development studies were the tight specifications. Unfortunately, the The test receiver, fully compatible with a
completed, or advanced towards com- integration rate decreased in the second standard ALMA test cryostat, was assem-
pletion, and a new Call for Studies was half of 2016 as a result of a cryogenic bled from components developed as
issued. maintenance problem with the ALMA part of the previous efforts by the interna-
cryostats. At the end of 2016, 26 anten- tional collaboration. Following the room-
The main development project currently nas (7 of which are 7-metre antennas and temperature validation of all the passive
being carried out by ESO is to equip all 19are 12-metre antennas) were available components in 2015, the receiver was
66 ALMA antennas with Band 5 receiv- with Band 5 receivers at the AOS. Engi- tested with the full signal chain at room
ers. The Cold Cartridge Assemblies neering verification for most of these has temperature and validation of the system
(CCAs) are designed and produced by been completed and no issues found. at cryogenic temperatures will occur in
The Directorate of Programmes (DOP) Paranal instrument commissioning accommodate the new spectral format.
is responsible for the management and This general refurbishment will prolong
delivery of ESOs construction projects GRAVITY is a second-generation VLTI the life of the instrument.
within ESOs matrix organisation. The instrument that combines the signals from
work is organised into programmes, four telescopes in the K-band. GRAVITY CRIRES+ passed its Final Design Review
each of which includes several pro- enables spectroscopic imaging and will (FDR) in April 2016. One outcome of the
jects. The major programmes active in measure the astrometric separations of review was that two items were added to
2016 are ELT construction and instru- objects located within its 2-arcsecond the original scope: the polarimetric unit
mentation, the Paranal instrumentation field of view with a precision of 10micro- now includes linear polarisation (in addi-
programme and the technology devel- arcseconds. 2016 was a very intense tion to circular), operating from Y- to
opment programme. year for GRAVITY: after installation in the K-band; and a Fabry-Prot (etalon) inter-
renovated VLTI Laboratory, the instrument ferometer has been added to the cali
At its June meeting ESO Council was commissioned first with the ATs and bration unit for non-simultaneous high-
authorised placing all ELT Phase 1 pro- then with the UTs and the MACAO mod- precision wavelength calibration. All the
curements on a schedule leading to ules. GRAVITY then went through several major optical and mechanical compo-
first light in 2024. Thanks to a huge commissioning runs together with the nents have been received and CRIRES+
effort, which is still ongoing, 80 % of the CIAO infrared modules. While the instru- is currently undergoing its assembly, inte-
material cost for Phase 1 of the ELT has ment is offered to the community with the gration and verification (AIV) and testing
now been committed. Agreements ATs and with MACAO and the UTs for phase. Provisional Acceptance Europe
were signed for Phase A studies for the spectroscopy, commissioning of GRAVITY (PAE) is planned by the end of 2017 and
Multi-Object Spectrograph for Astro- will continue in 2017 to optimise astrome- shipment of the instrument to P aranal in
physics, Intergalactic medium studies try and to test the CIAO on-axis mode. the first quarter of 2018.
and Cosmology (MOSAIC) and the
high resolution spectrograph HIRES. NACO was originally supposed to be
Instrument upgrades decommissioned after its removal from
Progress has been made across the UT4, but it has been decided to keep
board on all projects under the P aranal X-shooter is a very popular instrument, it in operation to continue the monitoring
Instrumentation Programme. The but for some time its ADCs were inopera- of the Galactic Centre and support
GRAVITY instrument has gone through ble because of mechanical instabilities. observing of the peri-event of star S2 in
several commissioning runs, including 201718. However, the re-installation of
with the CIAO modules. This achieve- The project team finalised a design for NACO does carry some risk, because of
ment was enabled by the VLTI Facility an upgrade of the ADC drive mechanism. the critical state of three major compo-
Project which has delivered all the Hardware was procured and after assem- nents of the instrument: the detector sys-
necessary infrastructure. The spectro- bly of the first unit, tests were conducted tems, the field selector and the real time
scopic mode of GRAVITY has been both at room temperature and in the cold. computer. ESO therefore began a project
released to P aranal operations with The behaviour was found to be excellent to ensure that NACO can be operated
both the UTs and the ATs. Progress and, after a review, the three remaining and maintained until 201920. Spares
on the AOF has been very impressive, units (one for each arm of the spectro- were procured and tested for all compo-
starting with installation of the three graph) were tested. A detailed plan was nents, Aladdin infrared detector arrays
remaining laser guide star units and prepared and submitted for the interven- (from CRIRES) were sent for repackaging
culminating in the installation of the tion on UT2 to exchange all the ADC and the first unit was returned to ESO for
DSM with the first on-sky tests. Two drives, insert and align the prisms in the tests.
new spectrographs are now under new drive and commission X-shooter with
development for LaSilla: NIRPS for the the new hardware. The ADCs will be
ESO 3.6-metre telescope and SOXS available to X-shooter users in the second Instruments under construction
for the NTT. quarter of 2017.
ESPRESSO is an ultra-stable, high-
The ESO technology development CRIRES is undergoing a major upgrade resolution, fibre-fed optical spectrograph
programme is well under way and is (to CRIRES+). The upgrade includes a for the VLT. It is contained in vacuo for
now supporting areas such as the new gas cell to achieve a radial velocity increased stability and is equipped with
development of key adaptive optics precision of 23ms 1, in order to search a reference source to characterise instru-
components for the ELT, fast deforma- for planets of super-Earth masses in the mental drifts simultaneously with the
ble mirrors with large numbers of habitable zones of M-dwarf stars, and science observations, following the same
actuators and continued development a novel polarimetric unit that can be used concept as HARPS. ESPRESSO will be
of laser guide star technology. to characterise stellar magnetic fields in able to observe with any of the UTs, or
low-mass objects. A cross-disperser will with all four together.
increase the simultaneous wavelength
The VLT Interferometric Tunnel situated coverage by a factor of about ten, and During 2016 almost all the hardware
beneath the surface at P
aranal Observatory. three new HAWAII 2RG detectors will was delivered to the consortium. The
vacuum vessel has proved to be extremely targets, including asteroids, young stellar the final test phase should be accepted.
air-tight; outgassing tests with the system objects and AGN. Once problems with The PAE for the instrument control soft-
fully integrated are continuing and look the laboratory air-conditioning system at ware was decoupled from the system
very promising so far. The improved the Observatoire de la Cote dAzur had PAE and took place in January 2017.
echelle grating mosaic, with enhanced been solved, and the detector electronics Here, some issues were identified which
throughput, and the final large collimator had been repaired at the beginning of will not be resolved until the final PAE
mirror have been integrated into the opti- the year, the integration and verification tests. Owing to some unforeseen prob-
cal bench, and the instrument had its phase continued without major problems. lems with the detector peculiarities and
first technical light in June using a com- In the course of these activities, the first the subsequent data calibration, addi-
mercial camera. The final cryo-vacuum N-band fringes were obtained in April and tional testing and analysis were needed,
system was integrated at the end of the first M-band fringes in August. with the result that the PAE has to be
the year, and system tests with the blue shifted by two months to September
camera are ongoing. In preparation for PAE, the Test Readiness 2017. The AIV phase at P aranal will start
Review took place on 12 December, in November 2017 and first fringes are
Much progress has also been made on with the conclusion that the planning for expected in February 2018.
the data reduction and data analysis
software, the first version being tested
on real ESPRESSO data.
Lopez/OCA
AIP/ESO
ERIS will be a new adaptive optics sup-
ported infrared facility for the J- to
M-bands (15 m) at the UT4 Cassegrain
focus. The adaptive optics bonnette will
feed both an infrared imager (NIX) and
the upgraded SPectrometer for Infrared
Faint Field Imaging (SPIFFI) of SINFONI.
ERIS will use the AOF deformable mirror
and one of its lasers, to improve both the
spatial resolution and sky coverage com-
pared to the current NACO and SINFONI
instruments. The project kicked off on
27November 2015, and the agreement
with the consortium was signed in Octo-
ber 2016. At the very beginning of the
year an intervention on SINFONI was car-
ried out, aimed at improving its transmis-
sion and spectral resolution. The instru-
ment also needed a thorough service
after several years of operation. The ERIS will be installed on VISTA. Its unique Signing of the agreement with a consortium led by
the Leibniz-Institut fr Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP) to
Preliminary Design Review (PDR) took capabilities result from the combination
build 4MOST.
place in February 2016 as planned, and of a large field of view, medium and high
the FDR is scheduled for May 2017. spectral resolutions in the visible range
for both Galactic and extragalactic astro- March and in April a first-light event took
MOONS is a 0.81.8m multi-object physics and very high multiplex capabili- place with the projection of four laser
spectrometer designed to work at the ties. Two major milestones were achieved guide stars. The system has been fully
Nasmyth focus of the VLT. The instrument in 2016: commissioned in stand-alone mode and
will have 1000fibres patrolling a total field Preliminary Design Review (June). The further tests will proceed on-sky. Valida-
25 arcminutes in diameter. There will be board stated that the work performed tion of the interfaces with the GRAAL
two spectral resolving powers: R ~ 4000 is of high quality and of appropriate instrument, the GALACSI instrument, and
spanning the full near-infrared wavelength level. In some areas the level exceeded the DSM will also be carried out.
range; and a higher-resolution mode that expected at the preliminary design
which gives R ~ 9000 in the I-band win- stage. The PAE for GALACSI took place in
dow and R ~ 20 000 in a region of the T he agreement between ESO and the April 2016 and completed the series of
H-band window. The lower-resolution 4MOST consortium was signed in PAEs for the AOF project. The DSM
mode is optimised for measuring galaxies Potsdam in August. was shipped to Paranal in early Septem-
with redshifts greater than one and the ber, re-integrated and transported to
higher-resolution mode is optimised for The project team is now preparing the final UT4. Part of the DSM installation consist-
stellar surveys. design. In 2017, there will be two interme- ed of the removal of the old Dornier M2
diate reviews the Data Flow Design Unit. This intervention was very delicate,
MOONS has two main parts: the rotating Review and the FDR for long-lead items. as it had not been performed since the
front end, which is at the focal plane and The objective is to install 4MOST on VISTA installation of the four M2 units on the
houses the fibre positioners, acquisition in 2022. UTs. In October, several reference meas-
system and the metrology system for the urements were taken to quantify the per-
fibres; and the cryogenic spectrograph, formance of UT4 including the complete
which houses the spectrograph optics, Infrastructure projects instrument suite of the telescope. Later
gratings and detectors. The two parts are in October, the LGSF Launch Telescope
connected by fibres. The MOONS PDR AOF was dismounted to be refurbished later.
was held in October 2015 and the Optical The AOF made fundamental steps The Dornier M2 unit was then removed
FDR in October 2016. This latter review towards completion in 2016. The com- and the DSM hub installed. During the
allowed the consortium to begin the ten- missioning is now in full swing all sub- intervention, a campaign of accurate laser
dering process for long-lead optical com- systems have been shipped and most tracker measurements was underway to
ponents. The full FDR will be held in are installed on UT4. By early 2016 the characterise the position and mechanical
March 2017. three remaining laser guide star units had alignment of the M2 unit. This proved
been installed on the telescope. Verifica- extremely valuable, allowing the new M2
4MOST will be a world-class facility for tion of proper functioning in the environ- unit hub to be p ositioned with mm accu-
fibre-fed multi-object spectroscopy and ment of the telescope was completed in racy. The DSM was then inserted into the
ESO/M. Zamani
trolled by the Garching and P
aranal without using GRAVITY on-sky. This
mechanical team. tool will help to identify the origin of the
residual vibrations and to maintain the
Having ensured that the DSM perfor- vibration at a low level.
mance and functionality were preserved
in the telescope environment, the DSM The FDR for the adaptive optics of the
team could move to the next phase of ATs (NAOMI) was held in November. In
tests on-sky. To the teams delight, the December, the first deformable mirrors
very first pointing of UT4 with the newly manufactured by ALPAO were delivered
installed DSM found the target within to IPAG and the integration phase is
arcseconds of the expected position, ongoing, both in G arching and Grenoble.
amply verifying the careful alignment work The last pair of differential delay lines
done by the optical engineers. The DSM developed by the Observatoire de Genve
performed well in static mode (with no passed PAE in December 2016; they
adaptive optics correction). The GRAAL will be installed in P aranal in February
Maintenance and Commissioning Mode 2017. Under a development contract with
was then brought into operation, using an external company, the Interferometer
the 4040 ShackHartmann sensor Supervisory Software (ISS) is being
to quantify the image quality in the UT4 upgraded as well. In addition to support-
focal plane. When full confidence was ing the star separators in all telescopes
reached about the marriage of the DSM and CIAO off-axis on the UTs, it provides
with UT4, the telescope was handed over many new interfaces with the complex
to Paranal Operations for instrument GRAVITY instrument. Further ISS devel-
characterisation. The same tests carried opments are expected in 2017, in prepa-
out before the M2 exchange were repeat- The Ground Atmospheric Layer Adaptive OptiCs ration for the arrival of MATISSE.
for Spectroscopic Imaging (GALACSI) instrument in
ed and the results were satisfactory. In
the laboratory in G
arching, ready for shipment to
the last days of December, the GALACSI Paranal. In November 2016, Thanh Phan Duc
module was shipped to P aranal and it retired from ESO. Thanhs dedication and
will be integrated in early January 2017. the positive spirit which he brought to the
Next year will then focus on the commis- remains to be solved. A similar vibration VLTI project over many years were much
sioning of the AOF systems in their vari- mitigation activity is continuing for the appreciated.
ous modes. UTs and some cooling pumps are being
replaced to reduce vibrations. Meanwhile
VLTI Facility in Garching,
a vibration metrology sys- LaSilla instruments
Begun in the summer of 2014, the VLTI tem, inspired by the metrology for PRIMA
Facility Project is at its mid-point. Provi- (the decommissioned Phase-Referenced After four years of development, the
sional Acceptance Chile has been grant- Imaging and Micro-arcsecond Astrometry contract to provide a turn-key laser fre-
ed for the service station of the ATs, the facility), is being developed. It will allow quency comb (LFC) system for HARPS is
four star separators in the upgraded ATs,
the four star separators in the upgraded
coud areas of the UTs, and the upgrad-
ed VLTI Laboratory. These installations
and upgrades permitted the integration of
the four CIAO systems and the commis-
sioning and release into operation of the
spectroscopic mode of GRAVITY with
both UTs and ATs.
ESO/E. Vernet
Breakthroughs in experimental science Quantum efficiency of Mark13 SAPHIRA e-APD The laboratory-
1.0 measured quantum
are often driven by advances in the
efficiency of a Saphira
associated key technologies. The ESO QE H-band device at two settings
QE K-band
technology development programme of the avalanche gain.
aims to develop and secure the technolo- 0.8 Excellent performance
AR coating to wavelengths below
gies that ESO will need to successfully
J-band was seen.
conduct its scientific programme in the
Quantum efficiency
400
Relative flux
upper atmosphere.
The profile image was
100 300 taken at a distance of
400metres from the
200 WHT telescope and at
a rate of 150 Hz, similar
50
to the ELT case.
100
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 86 000 88 000 90 000 92 000 94 000 96 000
X (arcseconds) Altitude (m)
ELT. The goal is to collect real field data many other technological challenges. In ability to search for potentially habitable
and evaluate adaptive optics perfomance. 2016, ESO, represented by the Director planets around Alpha Centauri, the closest
General, signed an agreement with the stellar system to the Earth. The experi-
Detecting and studying potentially habita- Breakthrough Initiatives (founded in 2015 ment will explore new high-contrast
ble planets orbiting other stars will be by Yuri and Julia Milner to explore the observing techniques to allow a careful
one of the main scientific goals of the Universe, seek scientific evidence of life search programme to be conducted in
ELT. Although the increased aperture size beyond Earth, and encourage public 2019.
of the ELT will be essential to obtaining debate from a planetary perspective). The
images of planets at larger distances in agreement provides funds for VISIR to be The sky around the bright star Alpha Centauri AB
the Milky Way, their detection will face modified in order to greatly enhance its the closest star system to the Solar System.
During 2016 the ELT continued to follow The June 2016 resolution was necessary New industrial contract awards
its original plan and schedule as approved to enable the secondary (M2) polishing
by Council in December 2014. The ESO contract to be placed in time for first light Among the many contracts awarded in
team has worked hard to finalise the in 2024. Without this resolution, the M2 2016, the single most important one by
technical documentation required by the polishing contract signature would have size (about 400 million euros) and criticality
very high rate at which the industrial con- had to be postponed to cope with global for the overall programme schedule was,
tracts are being placed. This preparation ESO cash-flow constraints. without doubt, the contract for the final
implies a significant engineering effort design, manufacturing, transport, erection,
upstream, such as defining interface con- At Armazones, the main site preparation installation and commissioning on site of
cepts, generating related drawings and activities, namely the construction of the dome and main telescope structure
documents, addressing and solving spe- the access road and the flattening of the (DMS). At a ceremony in ESO Headquar-
cific system engineering issues, updating, top platform, were completed by the con- ters on 25 May 2016, ESO signed the
when needed, system-level documents tractor ICAFAL (Chile) in late 2015. During contract with the ACe Consortium (Italy),
and ensuring that the ultimate scientific 2016, an amendment was signed and consisting of Astaldi, Cimolai and the
performance will be achieved. By the end brought to completion for some addition- nominated sub-contractor EIE Group.
of the year, about 640 million euros al work, including the preparation of the This is the largest contract ever awarded
had been committed, at least 80 % of the platform for the dry coolers (providing by ESO and also the largest single con-
material cost for ELT Phase 1. a displaced heat exchanger for the dome tract ever in ground-based astronomy.
and telescope), additional safety meshes,
Although it may not be entirely obvious, crash barriers and other minor works to The DMS contract signing was the result
each contract award is the result of an enable a smooth handover of the site to of a long competitive tendering process,
intensive effort that rigorously follows the Dome and Main Structure (DMS) con- initiated in 2012 with issue of a Prelimi-
the ESO procurement process. It usually tractor for mobilisation on site in 2017. nary Inquiry. The ELT dome and tele-
starts with a non-binding Request for scope structure will take telescope engi-
Information that helps to optimise the pro- Another very significant site preparation neering into new territory. The contract
curement strategy. Then follows a Pre milestone, on 27 May, was the First Stone includes not only the 85-metre-diameter
liminary Inquiry aimed at selecting capa- event with the company SAESA (Chile) rotating dome, with a total mass of around
ble bidders based on their experience to mark the extension of the Chilean elec- 5000 tonnes, but also the telescope
and company profile. Finally, the process trical grid to the southern end of the mounting and tube structure, with a total
ends with a competitive call for tender Paranal/Armazones property. This con- moving mass of more than 3000 tonnes.
among the pre-selected bidders. Most of nection will enable ESO to connect its Each of these structures is by far the
the effort from the ELT engineering team observatories to the grid by autumn 2017 largest ever built for an optical/infrared
in 2016 went into preparing documents and will lead to significant savings in telescope. The dome is almost 80 metres
associated with each step in this pro- operational costs, and reduce the carbon high and its footprint is comparable in
cess, in particular the technical require- footprint of the Observatory. area to a football pitch.
ment specifications and statements of
work for the many items to be procured.
The design for the optical test set-up for In September, a joint visit to Armazones
M4 was also successfully completed. was organised to witness the final status
Furthermore, extensive prototyping activi- of the mountain after completion of the
ties on the electronics and actuators, as site preparation work, including the plat-
well as breadboards (for example, for form for the dry coolers. The start of ACe
qualifying the adhesive bonding of mirror activities on site, with site handover and
pads), have allowed the design of this ELT base camp preparation at Armazones,
subsystem to be optimised and validated. is currently planned for mid-2017. The
The optimisation is particularly important recruitment of a dedicated ESO DMS site
for this sub-system as it is critical for ELT manager to follow and coordinate the
science performance. work on site has been initiated. Through-
out the year, ESO has made on-demand
The two parallel contracts, with VDL calls on the expert services provided by
(the Netherlands) and CESA (Spain), for Ramboll (Denmark), as part of an ongoing
the final design and qualification of the consulting contract signed in 2013.
M1 segment supports reached their final
design in 2016 and advanced towards Good progress can also be reported for
the production of a set of engineering the M2 polishing contract with Reosc
and qualification models. These models which began in July, in particular in three
will be used to fully validate the final critical aspects: the bonding for the mir-
design, before launching a separate con- ror mounting interfaces; the procurement
tract in 2017 for the manufacturing. An of the blanks for the optics of the metrol-
One of the polished shells of the ELT M4 mirror at industry day was organised to help poten- ogy tower; and the technical specifications
Reosc, before cutting into petals.
tial manufacturers prepare themselves for the supply of the M2 blank. Good pro-
well in advance. gress has also been made in the design
of the test set-up and several tools for
AdOptica & Boostec
Among the contracts initiated in early manufacturing and pad glueing. Work has
2016, the DMS can already report good started on preparing the existing work-
progress. By the end of the year, a num- shop for the M2 polishing activities.
ber of design trade-offs had been under-
taken and some optimisation performed, Finally, the two consultancy contracts
in particular to simplify the manufacture initiated at the beginning of 2016 to pro-
and assembly. An important achievement vide support to the ELT Programme
has been the redefinition of the Nasmyth Office in the areas of quality assurance
Platform interface with the science instru- (QA) and independent software verifica-
ments, replacing the original 1-metre tion and validation (ISVV) have entered
grid of interface flanges by much stiffer their steady-state operational phase.
attachment flanges with 3-metre spacing. The first is with ISQ (Portugal) and the
The more widely spaced instrument second with Critical Software (Portugal).
The test version of the silicon carbide M4 support attachment points relieve several design The responsiveness of both contractors
structure. difficulties on the instrument side. and their specific expertise have already
Velocity vector
0.6
0.45
0.3
0.15
0.0
(m s 1)
Statement of Financial Position 31.12.2016 31.12.2015 Cash Flow Statement 2016 2015
Operating Revenue
Contributions from Member States 158 533 197 898
Contributions to special projects 17 668 12 289
In-kind contributions 6 277 8 405
Sales and service charges 1 778 2 067
Other revenue 2 008 598
Total Operating Revenue 186 264 221 257
Operating Expenses
Installations and equipment 2 939 1 625
Supplies and services 43 149 44 103
Personnel expenses 75 176 83 700
Depreciation of fixed assets 66 120 66 510
Other operating expenses 4 249 1 123
Total Operating Expenses 191 633 197 061
In 2016, the National Audit Office of The net assets of the Organisation have The 2017 approved income budget
Finland* took up their mandate to audit increased by 7.4 million euros and as at amounts to 202.0 million euros. It
ESOs accounts. They have expressed 31 December 2016 amount to 577.0 mil- includes the regular contributions from
their opinion that the financial statements lion euros. the ESO Member States, income from
for 2016 give a true and fair view of the third parties and partners, and other
affairs of the Organisation. The cash flow in 2016 was positive by income, as well as additional income for
24.2 million euros. The cash position at the ELT from all Member States and
The accounting statements for 2016 31 December 2016 stood at 79.3 million funding from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung
show a deficit of 4.0 million euros against euros. for the ESO Supernova Planetarium &
a positive result of 24.2 million euros in Visitor Centre. Conditional income from
2015. The difference compared to 2015 ESO Council approved the budget for Brazil will be added as soon as their
is caused mainly by lower income, pre- 2017 in December 2016. The approved ratification procedure is completed.
dominantly because Polands entrance 2017 expenditure budget amounts to
fee had a major impact on the income in 236.8 million euros. The increase in
2015. The lower income was partly com- comparison to 2016 mainly reflects the
pensated for by lower costs associated ELT Phase 1, offset by lower remaining
with operating activities in 2016. expenditure for the ALMA Residencia
and for the construction of the ESO
Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre.
Review of regulations for Local Staff All positions were advertised on the ESO
Members in Chile Recruitment Portal. For International An instruction session organised by HR at the
Staff Member positions, notifications h erCareer exhibition in Munich.
A working group led by the Director of
Administration with HR officers, repre-
Foto Pfuegl
sentatives from Local Staff and the
unions at Paranal and LaSilla, continued
to review the regulations for Local Staff
Members in Chile in light of developments
in Chilean labour law. Final recommen
dations from the working group are
expected towards the end of 2017.
Austria Poland
1.2 % 0.9 %
(Left) Distribution of International (Above) Distribution of Local Staff
Other Sweden Portugal Staff Members by nationality as of Members by duty station as of
8.9 % 0.5 % 0.7 % 31December 2016. 31December 2016.
Day in Lausanne in April. This is the only As regulated in the ESO Fair Treatment, HR in Chile ran several drop-in talks and
event in Switzerland exclusively devoted Courtesy and Respect policy, the Direc- awareness sessions for all personnel on
to international organisations, and pro- tor General appointed four harassment The Art of Listening, Cultural Integra-
vides a forum for motivated early career Contact Persons as of November, after tion, Managing Negative Emotions and
graduates to meet recruitment specialists the 2-year terms of the current ones had General Communication Skills Training.
from these organisations. There were 49 ended.
international organisations participating The induction programme for newcomers
and around 2400 visitors. In 2016, ten staff members celebrated included the ESO policy on drug and
25 years of service and four celebrated alcohol misuse to increase awareness on
35 years of service. how drug and alcohol dependency can
Employee relations and communications affect family, friends and colleagues. Sev-
eral awareness sessions were offered to
The collective bargaining process took Collaboration and representation of HR staff in Chile.
place during November and, after profes-
sional and fruitful discussions, new Col- The 147th Finance Committee in Novem-
lective Contracts for Local Staff Members ber agreed to the extension of the Pro- Health and welfare and social security
in Chile were signed with the P aranal gressive Retirement Programme and the
Union, the LaSilla Union and the group of revised CERNESO agreement, which The annual CERN Pension Fund informa-
non-unionised Local Staff Members. The were both approved by the ESO Council tion meeting took place at ESO Head-
contracts entered into force on 1 Decem- in December. quarters in October.
ber 2016 and are valid for three years.
Human Resources continued to partici- The yearly review with the healthcare pro-
Since the International Staff Association pate in regular meetings of the HR Advi- vider Cigna in October resulted in minor
was not successful in holding elections sory Group of the JAO in order to discuss amendments to the scheme. The individ-
for new representatives in 2016, the cur- and resolve personnel issues of common ual insurance premium for 2017 remains
rent representatives operated in caretaker interest. unchanged.
mode throughout the year. This transi-
tional situation hampered the process of
consultation on changes to specific diver- Learning and professional development HR advice and administration
sity and family friendly policies presented
by HR. Human Resources continued to deliver a Human Resources also handles a wide
wide range of development activities spectrum of personnel-related activities.
In order to foster fruitful communication according to the Training Catalogue. As an integral part of this service, a varie-
between the ESO Management and the ty of pertinent documents, circulars and
International Staff Association, three In 2016 the trend towards individualised processes were reviewed during 2016.
working groups were formed in 2016. development needs continued and an
These working groups presented con- increasing number of activities have been The flexible working time policy, which
structive proposals to improve the work designed and specifically rolled-out to was rolled out in 2015 as a test model
environment. Several activities are targeted departments. and reviewed in October, was extended
planned to be implemented in 2017. for another year based on the positive
user feedback.
Staff departures
Director General
Tim de Zeeuw
Directorate of Directorate of
Administration Engineering
Director General
Support Patrick Geeraert Michle Pron
Laura Comendador Patricia Adriazola Jos Antonio Abad Mark Desmond Herv Kurlandczyk Roland Reiss
Frutos Andrs Oldemar Arias Pastor Downing Przemyslaw Kurowski Javier Reyes
Fernando Comern Angela Arndt Roberto Abuter Philippe Duhoux Paolo La Penna Robert Ridings
Mara Gabriela Gajardo Katalin Baltayne Matteo Accardo Jorge Dupeyron Ulrich Lampater Jess Rodrguez Ulloa
Nikolaj Gube Korompay Eric Allaert Christophe Dupuy Mervi Johanna Calle Rosenquist
Priya Nirmala Hein Jean-Michel Bonneau Emmanuel Aller Sebastian Elias Egner Lampinen Marc Sarazin
Isolde Kreutle Sonia Bouchtita Carpentier Siegfried Eschbaumer Uwe Lange Marcus Schilling
Elena Llopis Liske Renate Brunner Domingo lvarez Michael Esselborn Miska Le Louarn Christian Schmid
Enik Patks Marcela Campos Mndez Sylvie Feyrin Samuel Lvque Dominik Schneller
Douglas Pierce-Price Karina Celedn Paola Amico Gerhard Fischer Steffan Lewis Babak Sedghi
Jasna Razmilic Claudia Silvina Cerda Luigi Andolfato Vincenzo Forchi Paul Jonathan Lilley Matthias Seidel
Diego Rioseco Mercedes Chacoff Javier Eduardo Andreas Frster Jean-Louis Lizon Paola Sivera
Jane Wallace Pauline Conlon Argomedo Zazzali Robert Frahm LAllemand Christian Snke
Jeremy Walsh Amal Daire Gerardo vila Christoph Frank John Lockhart Fabio Sogni
Andrew Williams Alain Delorme Pascal Ballester Armin Gabasch Simon Lowery Heiko Andreas Sommer
Evelina Dietmann David Bargna Fernando Gago Christian Lucuix Jrg Stegmeier
Andrea Dinkel David Barr Csar Enrique Lars Kristian Lundin Stefan Strbele
Sabine Eisenbraun Pablo Jos Barriga Garca Dab Pierre-Yves Madec Marcos Surez Valles
Emeritus Astronomers Willem Eng Campino Daniel Gaytan Antonio Ramn Dieter Suchar
Thijs de Graauw Alicia Garafulich Domenico Bonaccini Christoph Geimer Manescau Hernndez Helmut Tischer
Robert Fosbury Alain Gilliotte Calia Paolo Ghiretti Alisdair Manning Mirko Todorovi
Sandro DOdorico Rebonto Guha Henri Bonnet Bruno Gilli Enrico Marchetti Sbastien Tordo
Massimo Tarenghi Manuela Gunka Roland Brast Percy Glaves Juan Antonio Simon Mark Tulloch
Robert Hamilton Martin Brinkmann Andreas Glindemann Marrero Hernandez Arno Van Kesteren
Charlotte Hermant Paul Bristow Juan Carlos Gonzlez Stewart McLay Elise Vernet
Georg Junker Iris Bronnert Herrera Leander H. Mehrgan Andrs Vinet
Emeritus Physicists Nathalie Kastelyn Enzo Brunetto Justo Antonio Serge Mnardi Jakob Vinther
Gert Finger Katarina Kiupel Blanca Camucet Gonzlez Villalba Samantha Milligan Michele Zamparelli
Mara Francisca Labayru Alessandro Caproni Thomas Grudzien Andrea Modigliani Stefano Zampieri
Katjuscha Lockhart Sandra Mara Castro Ivan Maria Guidolin Christophe Moins Pablo Zuluaga Ramrez
Rodrigo Lorca Llus Cavaller Marqus Carlos Guirao Sanchez Antonio Ignacio
Qiao Yun Ma Cecilia Cern Stphane Guisard Molina Conde
Mara Madrazo Alberto Maurizio Chavan Pablo Gutierrez Michael Mller
Alessandro Martis Anne-Laure Cheffot Cheetham Michael Naumann
Alejandra Mena Gianluca Chiozzi Ronald Guzman Sylvain Oberti
Katarzyna Meyer Emanuela Ciattaglia Collazos Juan Carlos Palacio
Mara Anglica Moya Mauro Comin Wolfgang Hackenberg Valenzuela
Christian Muckle Livio Condorelli Pierre Haguenauer Ralf Palsa
Hlne Neuville Ralf Dieter Conzelmann Andreas Haimerl Moreno Pasquato
Claudia Ober Paula Cristina Correia Peter Hammersley Jrme Paufique
Ester Oliveras dos Santos Jochen Haucke Marcus Pavez
Thomas Penker Claudio Cumani Gerald Hechenblaikner Federico Pellegrin
Florence Perrault Pascaline Darr Florian Heissenhuber Martine Peltzer
Leonel Pizarro Bernard-Alexis Delabre Renate Hinterschuster Lorenzo Pettazzi
Mauricio Quintana Franoise Ronald Holzlhner Thomas Pfrommer
Fabian Reckmann Delplancke-Strbele Stefan Huber Werther Pirani
Mario Riedel Nicola Di Lieto Derek James Ives Dejan Popovic
Jrgen Riesel Carlos Daz Cano Olaf Iwert Eszter Pozna
Rosa Ivonne Riveros Canio Dichirico Gerd Jakob Marco Quattri
Francky Rombout Martin Dimmler Bogdan Jeram Jutta Quentin
Elke Rose Robert Donaldson Paul Jolley
Marcia Saavedra Dario Dorigo Andreas Jost
Johannes Reinhold Dorn Yves Jung
Schimpelsberger Dimitrios Kalaitzoglou
Heidi Schmidt Markus Kasper
Mara Soledad Silva Lothar Kern
Erich Siml Ahmed Mubashir Khan
Roswitha Slater Mario Kiekebusch
Alexandra Specht Jean Paul Kirchbauer
Steffi Steins Barbara Klein
Orsolya Szcsnyi Jens Knudstrup
Arnoldus Gregorius Franz Koch
Tromp Johann Kolb
Karen Vallejo Johan Kosmalski
Lone Veds Marschollek Maximilian Kraus
Maritza Vicencio
Michael Weigand
Itziar De Gregorio Sergio Abadie Mara Daz Trigo Eduardo Matamoros Silvio Rossi Robin Arsenault
Monsalvo Andrea Acua Danuta Dobrzycka Andrea Mehner Flix Alberto Rozas Christine Bachmaier
William Dent Gregorio Aguilera Adam Dobrzycki Alexander Meister Laura Ruiz Zorrilla Fabio Biancat Marchet
Diego Alex Garca Claudio Agurto Reinaldo Donoso Angel Mellado Fernando Salgado Claudio Cabrera
Serge Guniat Bernardo Ahumada Javier Duk Antoine Mrand Ariel Snchez Mark Casali
Jorge Ibsen Javier Alarcn Michael Dumke Alberto Micol Stefan Sandrock Marc Cayrel
Rdiger Kneissl Jaime Alonso Cristian Elao Steffen Mieske Sebastian Sanhueza Frdric Derie
Stphane Leon Tanne Jos Luis lvarez Marcela Estefana Julien Milli Eleonora Sani Philippe Dierickx
Massimiliano Marchesi Nicols lvarez Espinoza Sabine Mhler Pierre Sansgasset Virginie Gil
Sergio Martin Joseph Anderson Lorena Faundez Palle Mller Jorge Santana Roberto Gilmozzi
Gautier Mathys Paola Andreani Jos Figueroa Francisco Miguel Samuel Santana Frdric Gont
Hugo Messias Jimmy Arancibia Giorgio Filippi Montenegro-Montes Tschudi Christoph Haupt
Lars-ke Nyman Ivn Aranda Erito Flores Alex Morales Ivo Saviane Volker Heinz
Jos Parra Juan Pablo Araneda Nathalie Fourniol Ivn Muoz Luca Sbordone Norbert Hubin
Neil Matthew Phillips Pablo Arias Michel Frantz Juan Carlos Erich Schmid Lieselotte Jochum
Francisco G. Ruseler Mara Adriana Arrau Wolfram Freudling Muoz-Mateos Linda Schmidtobreick Marc Florian Kerber
Miguel Snchez Oriel Alberto Arriagada Eloy Fuenteseca Sangeeta Mysore Ricardo Schmutzer Bertrand Koehler
Armin Silber Karla Aubel Dimitri Gadotti Julio Navarrete Nicolas Schuhler Nicholas Charles
Giorgio Siringo Francisco Azagra Sergio Gaete Mark Neeser Fernando Selman Kornweibel
Donald Tait Rodrigo Badinez Julien Girard Hernn Nievas Waldo Siclari Ignacio Lopez Gil
Baltasar Vila Vilaro Jos Bez Andrs Gonzlez Vittorio Nurzia Peter Sinclaire Pascal Martnez
Eric Villard Pedro Baksai Edouard Gonzlez Francisco Olivares Nicols Slusarenko Katia Montironi
Nicholas Whyborn Giacomo Beccari Jaime Gonzlez Rodrigo Olivares Alain Smette Luca Pasquini
Juan Beltrn Javier Andrs Gonzlez Juan Osorio Gerardo Smith Jean-Franois Pirard
Thomas Bierwirth Leonardo Gonzlez Federica Palla Jonathan Smoker Gero Rupprecht
Andrew Biggs Sergio Gonzlez Laurent Pallanca Christian Spille Valrie Saint-Hilaire
Israel Blanchard Monika Gotzens Rodrigo Javier Parra Thomas Stanke Stefano Stanghellini
Maxime Boccas Patricia Guajardo Diego Parraguez Christian Stephan Josef Strasser
Henri Boffin Carlos Guerra Eduardo Pea Michael Fritz Sterzik Roberto Tamai
Carlos Bolados Juan Carlos Guerra Isabelle Percheron Felix Stoehr Mauro Tuti
Pierre Bourget Sylvain Guieu Juan-Pablo Sandra Strunk Gianluca Verzichelli
Stphane Brillant Juan Pablo Haddad Prez-Beaupuits Thomas Szeifert Andrew Wright
Erich Bugueno Nicols Haddad Dirk Petry Lowell Tacconi-Garman
Francisco Cceres Boris Hussler Jorge Pilquinao Richard Tamblay
Luis Alejandro Olivier Hainaut Juan Pineda Gie Han Tan
Caniguante Reinhard Hanuschik Andrs Pino Mario Tapia
Michael Cantzler Evanthia Hatziminaoglou Aldo Pizarro Pedro Toledo
Robin Capocci George Hau Emanuela Pompei Karl Torstensson
Rubn Crcamo Xavier Haubois Sbastien Poupar Konrad Tristram
Csar Crdenas Juan Pablo Henriquez Matteo Pozzobon Josefina Urrutia
Duncan Castex Cristin Herrera John Pritchard Guillermo Valdes
Mnica Castillo Gonzlez David Rabanus Elena Valenti
Roberto Castillo Cristin Herrera Ruztort Andrs Ramrez Jos Javier Valenzuela
Susana Cerda Pascale Hibon Christian Ramrez Mario Van Den Ancker
Claudia Cid Michael Hilker Jorge Ramrez Eelco van Kampen
Lodovico Coccato Gerhard Hdepohl Suzanna Randall Pierre Vanderheyden
Alex Correa Rodrigo Huerta Claudio Reinero Jos Velsquez
Alejandra Corts Christian Hummel Marina Rejkuba Paulina Venegas
Angela Cortes Wolfgang Hummel Jrg Retzlaff Sergio Vera
Carlos De Breuck Elizabeth Humphreys Claudia Reyes Ignacio Vera Sequeiros
Willem-Jan de Wit Valentin Ivanov Miguel Riquelme Jorge Vilaza
Diego Del Valle Nestor Jimnez Leonel Rivas Zahed Wahhaj
Nausicaa Delmotte Ismo Kastinen Thomas Rivinius Rein Warmels
Christine Desbordes Thomas Klein Florian Rodler Wolfgang Wild
lvaro Daz Carlos La Fuente Chester Rojas Markus Wittkowski
Mariano Daz Francisco Labraa Pascual Rojas Burkhard Wolff
Eva Montserrat Robert Alexander Laing Martino Romaniello Pavel Yagoubov
Daz Catal Cdric Ledoux Cristian Romero Bin Yang
Alfredo Leiva Rodrigo Romero Vronique Ziegler
Marcelo Lpez Grard Zins
Fernando Luco Elena Zuffanelli
Felipe Mac-Auliffe Martin A. Zwaan
Gianni Marconi
Pedro Mardones
Christophe Martayan
Stphane Marteau
Mauricio Martnez
Director General
Tim de Zeeu DG Cabinet Office of Representation Internal
Laura Comendador in Chile Auditor
Frutos Fernando Comern Elena Llopis
Data
Contracts and Information ALMA La Silla Paranal ESO ALMA Project
Management
Procurement Technology Programme Observatory Support Centre Science
& Operations
Arnout Tromp Dieter Suchar Wolfgang Wild Andreas Kaufer Wolfgang Wild Jason Spyromilio
Michael Sterzik
Science Project
Operation Management APEX
Software Adrian Russell Thomas Klein
Pascal Ballester (interim)
System
Engineering
Gerald
Hechenblaikner
ESO/J. C. Muoz-Mateos
The traditional cutting of the tricolour ribbon at the The Dutch Foreign Minister, Bert Koenders, in the
inaugural ceremony of the LaSilla solar photovoltaic VLT control room during his visit to P
aranal.
plant.
Chilean Parliament, Jacqueline Peillard; In parallel with the progress of the agree- the US Air Force Office for Scientific
and the Regional Secretary of Economy, ment between ESO and the CTA for the Research, Charles Matson, and NASA
Gabriela Gmez. Furthermore, the Minis- hosting of CTA-South on the grounds of astronaut Ellen Baker. The ESO Observa-
ter of Energy, Mximo Pacheco Matte, the P
aranal Observatory, ESO has dis- tories also received visits from the Ambas-
visited LaSilla in September on the occa- cussed with the Chilean Government the sadors of Austria, B elgium, France,
sion of the inauguration of the new photo conditions under which this facility can Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and
voltaic plant. be established in Chile within the provi- Spain, as well as from non-member
sions of the 1995 agreement between states including Croatia, Greece, India,
Together with the other international ESO and its Host State. Israel and the United Arab E mirates.
observatories, ESO has continued its
involvement in efforts led by the Chilean Visits to ESOs facilities continue to be
Government to promote Chile as a refer- highly valued by officials of European Internal Audit
ence in astronomy worldwide at various governments and international institutions
levels. ESO is collaborating in initiatives visiting Chile. In the course of 2016, the The Internal Audit Office provided sup-
to enhance the protection of the dark Observatories have hosted visits by: the port to the external auditors in the perfor-
sky conditions in the north of Chile where Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bert mance of their duties. All ESO sites were
the observatories are located and, in Koenders; the Swedish Minister of visited with the new external auditor team
conjunction with the other international Labour and Integration, Ylva Johansson; from the National Audit Office of Finland.
observatories, is considering optimal the former President of Finland, Tarja They started with their audit of the 2016
ways in which such protection may be Halonen; the Chief Scientific Adviser to Financial Statements and will continue
recognised at the supranational level by the UK Government, Sir Mark Walport; in 2017. Other activities during the year
the United Nations. the Head of Division for MERCOSUR were the audit certificate for ESO part-
countries at the European External Action ners as well as various audit certificates
The international observatories also par- Service of the EU, Adrianus Koetsenruijter; for EU-financed projects.
ticipated in a study, begun in 2015, to the President of the Max Planck Society,
examine the development of a country- Martin Stratmann; the Director of the The Internal Audit Office, which provides
wide strategy for the growth of astro- Division of Regional Studies of the independent objective assurance and
tourism. At the professional level, the Organization for Economic Cooperation consulting to the Organisation, also
support given by the fund established by and Development (OECD), Joaquim de performed several other audits, including
the ESO-Chile Joint Committee for the Oliveira Martins; the Deputy Executive the audit of internal commitments, the
development of astronomy in the country Secretary of the Economic Commission audit of the regulatory framework for
has continued to receive a record num- for Latin America and the Caribbean financial transactions and the audit of
ber of applications year after year, in 2016 (ECLAC), Antonio Prado; and the Presi- allowances. Additionally, the Internal
amounting to 56, an increase of over dent of the Olof Palme International Foun- Audit Office audited and certified the
30 % on the previous year. dation, Anna Balletb. Other visitors to financial statements of the International
the observatories included the Director of Staff Association.
As ESOs main governing body, Council of their successors from the National
determines the policy of the Organisation Audit Office of Finland for the period Council and Committee of Council 2016
with regard to scientific, technical and 20162018 was confirmed. Jim Hinton
administrative matters. Both Council and from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear President Patrick Roche
the Committee of Council (the informal Physics gave a presentation on the CTA (United Kingdom)
body of Council) normally meet twice which was well received by the dele-
during the year: however, in 2016 there gates. Guaranteed Observing Time was
Austria Joo Alves
were also two extraordinary Council agreed for the planned instruments Daniel Weselka
meetings which took place in October ERIS and NIRPS. Prior to the close of the
and November. The first ordinary Council meeting, Council thanked Antti Vihknen, Belgium Christoffel Waelkens
Sophie Pireaux
meeting of the year was kindly hosted who was taking up a new position and
by the Polish delegation in Warsaw on so was leaving Council, for his valuable Czech Republic Jan Palou (Vice President)
78 June, the second taking place on input during his time as a member of the Jan Burinek
78 December in G arching. For the Com- Finnish delegation.
Denmark Uffe Jrgensen
mittee of Council, the March meeting was
Ren Michelsen
held in Madrid on 23 March where the The final Council meeting of the year
delegates were warmly welcomed by took place in Garching in December. Fol- Finland Jari Kotilainen
their Spanish colleagues. For the second lowing the regular updates on the ESO Antti Vihknen
Committee of Council, a kind invitation programme, the Chair of the ELT Man-
France Denis Mourard
by the Swedish delegation saw the meet- agement Advisory Committee provided Laurent Vigroux
ing being held in the Chalmersska huset feedback on the status of the ELT pro-
in Gothenburg on 6 October. All meetings gramme, in light of their recent meeting. Germany Thomas Henning/Linda
Tacconi
were chaired by the Council President, The extension of the APEX contract to
Thomas Roth
Patrick Roche. 31December 2022 was approved, as
was the resolution regarding ESOs par- Italy Nicol DAmico
At the June meeting, the Council Presi- ticipation in the CTA project. The Long Matteo Pardo
dent and the ESO Director General pro- Term Perspectives document Reaching
The Netherlands Konrad Kuijken
vided an update on a number of ongoing New Heights in Astronomy was present- Mirjam Lieshout-Vijverberg
events and actions, and the respective ed to Council by the Director General.
Directors and Heads of Department pre- Elections took place for the appointment Poland Marek Sarna
Konrad Dbski
sented feedback on all aspects of ESOs of personnel to the various ESO Commit-
programme, including the status of tees including the ALMA Board, Finance Portugal Paulo Garcia
LaSilla, Paranal, ELT and ALMA. In con- Committee, Observing Programmes Paulo Ferro
junction with the ELT programme, Coun- Committee, Scientific Technical Commit-
Spain Rafael Bachiller
cil congratulated ESO on the recent sign- tee and the Tripartite Group. The re-
Fernando Ballestero
ing of the DMS Contract and approved appointment of the Council President and
the placement of all Phase 1 procure- Vice President was confirmed for a third Sweden Hans Olofsson
ments on a baseline schedule which term. A number of HR matters were Catarina Sahlberg
would lead to first light in 2024. Council discussed, including the extension of the
Switzerland Willy Benz
approved the Annual Report, as well as progressive retirement scheme within Bruno Moor
the Financial Statements for 2015, the ESO. As part of the discussions related
scale of contributions for 2017 and the to finance, approval was given for the United Kingdom Simon Morris
Colin Vincent
External Audit Report, with discharge ESO Budget 2017 and Forward Look
being granted to the Director General. 20182020. With the completion of the
Following the completion of their extended mandate of the current Director General,
mandate, the Portuguese External Audi- Tim de Zeeuw, in August 2017, Council
tors were unanimously thanked for their unanimously approved the appointment
constructive feedback and recommenda- of Xavier Barcons as the next Director
tions over the past seven years which General for a period of five years. Xavier
was much appreciated by both Council Barcons will take up his position on
and the Executive alike. The appointment 1September 2017.
The ESO Finance Committee carries the The meeting in November took place
Finance Committee 2016 general responsibility for advising Council in Santiago de Chile, followed by visits
on all matters of administrative and finan- to the sites of ALMA and Paranal. The
Chair Colin Vincent cial management. In 2016, it held two delegates were impressed by the tech-
(United Kingdom) ordinary and two extraordinary meetings. nology and the dedication of the ESO
Inmaculada Figueroa The meetings in February and May were staff. At the meeting, the Finance Com-
(Spain, as of July 2016)
chaired by Colin Vincent, the ones in mittee recommended that Council
September and November by Inmaculada approve the CTA as a supplementary
Austria Sabine Hertgen Figueroa. programme, the ESO budget, the
Adjustment of Remunerations for ESO
Belgium Alain Heynen
The Finance Committee received regular International Staff for 2017, the exten-
Czech Republic Pavel Keek updates on recent developments at ESO sion of the Progressive Retirement
and procurement statistics and reports Programme and an amendment to the
Denmark Ren Michelsen from the Working Group for the Process agreement between CERN and ESO.
of the Adjustment of Remuneration and
Finland Sirpa Nummila (Vice-chair)
Allowances for ESO International Staff, In total, the Finance Committee approved
France Patricia Laplaud and approved various contracts. The 17 contracts exceeding 500 000, four
Anne-Hlne Bouillon highlights were: amendments to existing contracts and
(as of September 2016)
A t the extraordinary meeting in Febru- ten single-source procurements exceed-
Germany Gisela Schmitz-DuMont ary, the Finance Committee approved ing 250 000. Two of these contracts
the contract for the ELT DMS which is were approved by written procedure, as
Italy Giampaolo Bologna the largest single contract ever placed was the conclusion of Non Deliverable
Salvatore Vizzini
by ESO. Forward Agreements for the purpose of
(as of September 2016)
At its 145th meeting in May, the dele- securing Chilean Peso (CLP) exchange
The Netherlands Thijs Geurts gates recommended that the ESO rates.
Council approve the Financial State-
Poland Konrad Dbski
ments and the External Audit Report
Portugal Filipa Baptista Coelho for 2015, and the Scale of Contributions
for 2017.
Spain Inmaculada Figueroa T he extraordinary meeting in Septem-
Fernando Mrida
ber focused on the indexation of the
(as of July 2016)
Member States contributions and the
Sweden Johan Holmberg preliminary budget figures for 2017.
Katrin Brandt The Finance Committee also approved
(as of April 2016)
a contract for medium-voltage substa-
Switzerland Astrid Vassella tions to connect Paranal and Armazones
to the Chilean grid, which will reduce
United Kingdom Maggie Collick the costs of power.
The Scientific Technical Committee (STC) The STC appreciated the 2nd Generation
The Scientific Technical Committee 2016 advises Council and the Director General instruments lessons learned exercise
on scientific and technical priorities for and ESOs plan to incorporate the recom-
Chair Sofia Feltzing (Sweden) projects and programmes. It met twice at mendations into the planning of future
ESO Headquarters on 2627 April (STC87) instruments, both at the VLT and the ELT.
and 2526 October (STC88), continuing The STC agreed that an essential factor
Austria Franz Kerschbaum
with the new meeting format devised by in the development of world-class instru-
Belgium Hans Van Winckel (LSP) its Chair, Sofia Feltzing, and the Director ments is ESOs own in-house expertise
for Science. This format has reduced the in instrumentation and that this must be
Czech Republic Pavel Jchym number of regular presentations and the maintained. Whilst detectors and AO
STC now relies more on work done in the were identified as clear areas where ESO
Denmark Jes K. Jrgensen (ESAC)
STC sub-committees for ALMA (ESAC), must have world-leading experts, there
Finland Alexis Finoguenov (LSP) the ELT (ESC) and the LaSilla Paranal were also felt to be others, for example
Observatory (LSP), which now meet two interferometry, project management and
France Anne-Marie Lagrange
weeks before the STC. This allows STC systems engineering. The STC stressed
(ESC, Chair)
members to concentrate on timely issues, the importance of using the post-delivery
Germany Matthias Steinmetz (ESC) significantly increasing the amount of time period to ensure adequate knowledge-
available for discussion, both in open and transfer and data-reduction expertise.
Italy Livia Origlia
closed session.
The Netherlands Eline Tolstoy (LSP) Regarding 4MOST, the STC expressed
strong support for the science case,
Poland Grzegorz Pietrzyski 87th STC meeting but noted with concern that funding for
the full project has not yet been secured,
Portugal Andr Moitinho (LSP)
The STC were presented with new guide- reiterating that the STC would not sup-
Spain Almudena Alonso-Herrero lines (STC-569) for decommissioning port a significant de-scope, or significant
(ESC) VLT instruments by the VLT Programme cost overrun by ESO, without further dis-
Scientist. The STC supported the broad cussion.
Switzerland Francesco Pepe
principles, and described the proposed
United Kingdom Ian Smail (ESAC) long-term plan for decommissioning The STC were happy to see a practical
instruments as sensible and logical at the implementation of the new agreement
Chile Neil Nagar
current time. The STC supported a pro- between ESO and ESA, with the ESA
posal (STC-570) for the timely integration testbed telescope being installed on
Members at Large
of CRIRES+, acknowledged that the deci- LaSilla (STC-571); they supported the
Rachel L. Akeson (USA, ESAC)
sion was not a trivial one, and expressed view that time requested for supporting
Warrick Couch (Australia)
the hope that this kind of choice will not observations for the ESA PLAnetary
John D. Monnier (USA, LSP Chair)
be required too often in the future. The Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO)
Eva Schinnerer (Germany, ESAC Chair)
STC encouraged ESO to ensure that the mission be subject to the normal propri
Gillian Wright (UK, LSP)
two on-going VIMOS large spectroscopic etary period and peer-review processes.
surveys, VANDELS (deep VIMOS survey
Observer
of the CANDELS UDS and CDFS fields) The ELT Programme Manager, Roberto
Brazil Marcos Perez Diaz
and LEGA-C (Large Early Galaxy Astro- Tamai, presented an update on the status
physics Census), are given the resources of the ELT to the STC, which noted that
required to finish in a timely manner. the project is proceeding at an impres-
sive pace, with major procurements and
The STC noted the progress of the AOF contracts signed. The STC expressed its
and the VLTI, both large and complex support for the continued focus on achiev-
projects. In particular, the running of all ing first light in 2024. The STC noted that
four lasers at UT4 and the on-sky com- the date of the potential bifurcation in the
missioning of the GRAVITY CIAO system two-phase plan for achieving a complete
were regarded as impressive and exciting ELT is approaching and that this is close
achievements. The STC supported an ini- to some key milestones, such as PDR for
tiative described in STC-568 to define a some of the first-light instruments.
next-generation AO instrument to take full
advantage of the revolutionary AOF on The STC noted the extremely strong
UT4 and endorsed a plan to hold an open community interest in exploiting the
meeting in late 2016 to engage fully with growing scientific capabilities of ALMA,
the wider community. as evidenced by the very large number of
applications received by the Cycle 4 dead-
line. They appreciated the opportunity to
During its meetings in May and November, for coordinated observations with the VLT
The Observing Programmes Committee 2016 the Observing Programmes Committee and XMM-Newton, ESO received one
(OPC) evaluated the proposals submitted application in Period 99, which qualified
Xavier Barcons (Chair) for observations to be executed in Peri- for allocation of telescope time. Time at
Timo Prusti (Vice-Chair, Period 99) ods 98 (1 October 2016 to 31 March 2017) both facilities was granted to two joint
Henk Hoekstra (Vice-Chair, Period 98) and 99 (1 April 2017 to 30 September proposals evaluated by the XMM-Newton
2017). The number of proposals for obser- Observing Time Allocation Committee.
Micol Bolzonella (Period 98) vations with ESO telescopes in these two
Sylvain Bontemps periods was 901 and 883, respectively.
Alessandro Bressan (Period 98) Targets of Opportunity
Marcio Catelan (Period 98) The fraction of submitted proposals
Pierre-Alain Duc (Period 98) (excluding Large Programmes) is 23.5 %, The number of Target of Opportunity
Fabrizio Fiore 16.0 %, 29.1 % and 31.5 % for A, B, C and proposals submitted in 2016 remained
Gianfranco Gentile (Period 98) D categories, respectively. In terms of similar to previous years. For Periods 98
Wolf-Rainer Hamann time requested, the fractions are 25.5 %, and 99, the OPC evaluated 46 and 41
Catherine Heymans (Period 99) 16.8 %, 30.1 % and 27.5 %. This confirms proposals respectively, of which 21 and
Peter Jonker (Period 99) the slight shift towards stellar science 24 were scheduled, amounting to a total
Badri Krishnan (Period 99) (categories C and D), compared to extra- of about 420 hours. FORS2, X-shooter
Elina Lindfors (Period 99) galactic science (categories A and B), and UVES are the instruments most in
Sebastian Lopez (Period 99) that has been observed during the last demand for Target of Opportunity obser-
Filippo Mannucci few years. The OPC categories are speci- vations with a total of 228 requested
Eduardo Martin (Period 99) fied in full at www.eso.org/sci/observing/ hours. These three instruments were allo-
Joanna Mikolajewska proposals/opc-categories.html. cated 54.3 % of the Target of Opportunity
Subhanjoy Mohanty time. The Target of Opportunity allocation
Goeran Oestlin (Period 99) In 2016, X-shooter mounted on Kueyen at the two survey telescopes, VISTA and
Philipp Richter (Period 98) (UT2) was the VLT instrument with the VST, for programmes dedicated to the
Roberto Saglia largest amount of requested observing identification of the counterparts of gravi-
Robert Schmidt (Period 98) time (444 nights), followed by FORS2 tational wave sources remained signifi-
Ignas Snellen (Period 98) (429 nights) mounted on Antu (UT1) and cant (79 hours, 18.8 %).
Lidia Tasca (Period 99) MUSE (415 nights) on Melipal (UT4).
Kueyen (UT2) is the most popular UT in
Pierre Antilogus (Member at Large, Period 98)
terms of requested time (841 nights). The Calibration Programmes
Sebastian Hoenig (Member at Large, Period 98)
UT with the highest ratio between request-
Andrea Lapi (Member at Large, Period 99)
ed and available time (9.96) is Melipal Calibration Programmes allow users to
(UT4). In Period 98 the availability of UT4 complement the existing coverage of
was significantly lower because of the the calibration of ESO instruments. Their
activities related to the AOF. The break- main evaluation criterion is the compari-
down of requested and allocated time by son of the potential enhancement of the
UT and instrument is tabulated on p. 25. outcome of future science that can be
expected from their execution, against
In 2016, PIONIER, the near-infrared inter- the immediate return from the science
ferometric visitor instrument designed for proposals for the current period that are
imaging and fed by four telescope beams, directly competing for the same resourc-
received requests totalling 44 nights, of es. In 2016, one Calibration Programme
which 24 were allocated. In Period 99, was submitted (Period 99). The proposal
the new instrument GRAVITY was offered was recommended for implementation by
for the first time with the four UTs. the OPC.
200 000
100 000
0
11-Pho-TW Hydrae
41-Sci-neutron star
1-Org-GRAVITY, VLT
2-Sci-W2246-0526
3-Pho-IC 1613
4-Sci-2MASS J16281
5-Pho-IC 2631
6-Pho-ATLASGAL
7-Pho-RCW 106
8-Sci-IRAS 08544-4
9-Sci-Ceres
10-Pho-Wolf-Lundmar
12-Pho-Fornax
13-Org-4LGSF
14-Sci-Manx comet
15-Sci-TRAPPIST-1
16-Pho-LHA 120-N55
17-Org-ELT dome
18-Sci-Abell 2597
20-Sci-z = 7 oxygen
21-Sci-M67 planets
23-Pho-Jupiter
25-Sci-Deep Orion
26-Sci-Water snow l
27-Sci-Red dwarf bi
28-Pho-Messier 18
29-Sci-Proxima b
30-Sci-Terzan 5
31-Sci-Markarian 10
32-Sci-LAB-1
33-Sci-Hubble Ultra
34-Sci-ST11
39-Pho-MUSE pillars
35-Pho-Messier 78
36-Sci-RR Lyrae
37-Sci-Eta Carinae
38-Sci-QSO halos
40-Pho-exoplanets S
42-Sci-Dark Matter
43-Org-ESO Director
44-Sci-Spinning Bla
45-Org-Band 5 at AL
22-Org- GRAVIT Y Gal
24-Sci-Planet 3 sun
19-Sci-Methanol
The relative popularity of the 45 ESO press releases in the metric is the number of online newspaper articles
2016 as measured by three methods: Google Analyt- about a particular news release. These three metrics
ics (green) measures the number of visitors to the have widely different values and have been scaled to
news release web page on www.eso.org; Eurekalert the range of Google Analytics. The most popular
Artists impression showing a possible view of (yellow) counts how many journalists followed the release by far concerned the discovery of the planet
the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the news release link on the Eurekalert website (a news around Proxima Centauri (eso1629) in August, fol-
red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star aggregation and distribution site for journalists); Melt- lowed by other e xoplanet releases, an APEX photo
to the Solar System. water (red) is an electronic press clippings service release and an ALMA result on complex chemistry.
ESO/M. Zamani
neighbouring scientists on the Garching
research campus.
E xpedition team at
Paranal, where they
were greeted in the
languages of ESO's
Member States.
of the much better NGINX-based load concerted campaigns such as the Pale grapher of the Year, ESO Astrocamp)
balancer, implemented with the help of Red Dot, the inauguration of the 4LGSF, continue to bring ESO visibility. The
IT). Over 2200 web content tickets were the ELT DMS contract ceremony and the fourth ESO Astronomy Camp was held in
handled during this period, solving a vari- ESO Fulldome Expedition. partnership with Sterrenlab and collabo-
ety of often pressing and important tasks. ration on a second camp, the summer
Around 40 000 individual messages were For the first time ESO invited social media AstroCamp, was initiated with the Centre
posted on social media, spreading the power users to our sites. The #MeetESO for Astrophysics of the University of Porto
word about ESO highlights. expedition shared their experiences with (CAUP). The administrative workflow to
their communities of millions of people. oversee the implementation of partners
The promotion campaign resulted in benefits was strengthened. The Photo
Community coordination more than 1500 tweets and retweets dur- Ambassador and volunteer networks
ing the pre-campaign period, reaching have grown, and a Music Ambassador
Physical products are continually pro- almost 500 000 people and generating network with 10 composers was created.
duced, and the regular products are over 1 560 000 impressions. During the
distributed worldwide (The Messenger, visit, over 6700 tweets from more than Several new strategies have been initiat-
the ESO Annual Report, etc.). Migration 1600 people generated almost 37 million ed as ways are examined to improve
to the new ERP-based inventory and a impressions. The project showed the communication, making it more innova-
more secure online payment for the ESO general publics thirst for experiencing tive and finding better ways to reach
shop were implemented. The address ESO for themselves. 1319 year olds in particular.
database grows as the mission is extend-
ed, incorporating more education contacts ESOs first Reddit Ask Me Anything!
in the Member States, local community session was organised with the Pale Exhibitions and events
representatives in G arching and planetar- Red Dot scientists, which made it to the
iums. The ESO Supernova public news- Reddit front page in 12th place. Many There were a total of 19 events and exhi-
letter joined the family of newsletters, the hundreds of comments were submitted bitions in 2016. Exhibitions were held in
total number of subscribers exceeding to the thread and it is estimated that sev- Germany (FORSCHA, education), Greece
40000 for the first time. eral million people read the discussion. (European Week of Astronomy and Space
Science [EWASS], scientists), Switzerland
Targeted promotion was implemented Long-running partnerships (Photo Night- (International Career Day, job-seekers)
for regular products, but also for one-off scape Awards, Insight Astronomy Photo and in the USA (American Astronomical
Society [AAS], scientists). The ESO Open
Web visitors 2016 House Day at the Headquarters building
was a great success with a record 4300
eso.org 47 %
people of all ages visiting.
spacetelescope.org 34.8 %
iau.org 9.5 % In Chile, meeting highlights were the
almaobservatory.org 5.2 % Sociedad Chilena de Astronoma
(SOCHIAS); the Regional Fair Expo
portaltotheuniverse.org 2.1 %
Coquimbo with an estimated attendance
exoworlds.org 0.4 % of 70 000 people; and the Festival Inter-
supernova.eso.org 0.4 % nacional de Innovacin Social (FiIS) that
The distribution of the 6.8 mil-
astronomy2009.org 0.2 % lion web visits in 2016 to the
included a videolink to Paranal at sunset,
Other ESO, Hubble and IAU outreach with an estimated 35 000 people in
websites. attendance. The department supported
Photo Nightscape Award 2016 award ceremony. The participants of #MeetESO ESOs first social
media gathering on their five-day visit to Chile,
where they visited the VLT and ALMA.
135 million+ reached via social media on ESOs main English accounts 27 ESON Countries
Several hundreds of millions reached via traditional media 11 400 images (image archive)
694 000 reached via social media on ESO Supernova
Planetarium & Visitor Centre English and German accounts
The ESO Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, speaking Berthold Leibinger Innovationspreis for ESO Open House Day 2016 on Saturday
at the Proxima Centauri press conference, 24 August
development of the lasers in the 4LGSF. 22 October, as part of a day of public
2016.
access to the Garching research campus.
The design of the ALMA Residencia fea-
ALMA Board approves the production of tured at the Architecture Biennale, Venice,
Band 1 (3550 GHz) receivers. Italy. November
Signing of the ELT contract with the ALMA Board meeting, ALMA Santiago
French company Reosc for polishing the October Central Office.
ELT secondary mirror.
First light for the DSM of the AOF on UT4. 99th OPC meeting, ESO Headquarters.
Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders
visits Paranal. Start of Science Operations with 147th Finance Committee meeting in Chile.
GRAVITY and four ATs in spectro-imaging
mode.
August December
Former President of Finland, Tarja
Signing of an agreement with a con Halonen, visits Paranal. UT4 returns to regular operation using the
sortium led by the Leibniz Institut fr new DSM in non-adaptive mode.
Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP) to build Joint Garching-Chile Operations meeting
4MOST on VISTA. at ESO Headquarters. 141st Council meeting, ESO Headquarters.
Workshop on Supernovae through the First light at the combined focus labora- First light for ALMA Band 5 (163
Ages. Joint workshop with ESO. Easter tory of the VLT in preparation for the 211GHz) which includes the H20 line at
Island, Chile, 913 August. arrival of ESPRESSO. 183GHz.
Announcement of the discovery of a 88th STC meeting, ESO Headquarters. Xavier Barcons appointed as next ESO
planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, in the Director General from September 2017.
nearby Alpha Centauri triple star system,
using HARPS along with other facilities.
September
120
ESO Annual Report 2016
The award-winning Residencia office and accom-
modation building at the Paranal Observatory in
Chiles Atacama Desert.
4LGSF 4 Laser Guide Star Facility (VLT) CESA Compaa Espaola de Sistemas GALACSI Ground Atmospheric Layer
4MOST 4-metre Multi-Object Aeronuticos S.A. (Spain) Adaptive OptiCs for Spectroscopic
Spectroscopic Telescope (VISTA) CIAO Coud Infrared Adaptive Optics Imaging (AOF)
A&A Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics system (VLT) GARD Group for Advanced Receiver
CMOS Complementary metal oxide Development (Sweden)
A&ARv Journal, Astronomy and
Astrophysics Review semiconductor GIRAFFE Multi-fibre spectrograph (FLAMES,
CO Carbon monoxide VLT)
ADC Atmospheric Dispersion
Compensator CONICA High-resolution near-infrared GmbH Gesellschaft mit beschrnkter
camera (VLT, NACO) Haftung, German limited liability
AEM ALMA construction consortium company
AGN Active Galactic Nucleus CRIRES Cryogenic InfraRed Echelle
Spectrometer (VLT) GRAAL GRound-layer Adaptive optics
AJ Journal, Astronomical Journal Assisted by Lasers (AOF)
CRIRES+ Planned upgrade to CRIRES
ALMA Atacama Large Millimeter/ GRAVITY AO assisted, two-object, multiple
submillimeter Array CTA Cherenkov Telescope Array beam-combiner (VLTI)
AMBER Astronomical Multi-BEam DG Director General GROND Gamma-Ray burst Optical/Near-
combineR (VLTI instrument) DM Deformable mirror infrared Detector (LaSilla)
A-MKIDS APEX Millimetre-wave Kinetic DMS Dome and Main Structure (ELT) GTO Guaranteed Time Observing
Inductance Camera DSB Double sideband GuideCamTool Unified target acquisition
AN Journal, Astronomische DSM Deformable secondary mirror preparation tool for all ESO
Nachrichten instruments
EASC European ALMA Support Centre
Antu VLT Unit Telescope 1 H2020 Horizon 2020 EU Research and
ELT Extremely Large Telescope Innovation programme
AOF Adaptive Optics Facility
EFOSC2 ESO Faint Object Spectrograph HARMONI High Angular Resolution
AOS Array Operations Site (ALMA) and Camera 2 (NTT) Monolithic Optical and Near-
APEX Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment EIROforum Organisation consisting of the infrared Integral-field spectrograph
AIV Assembly, integration and eight scientific European (ELT)
verification process international organisations devoted HARPS High Accuracy Radial velocity
APD avalanche photodiode detector to fostering mutual activities Planetary Searcher (3.6-metre)
ApJ Journal, Astrophysical Journal EMAC ELT Management Advisory HAWK-I High Acuity Wide field K-band
Committee Imager (VLT)
ApJS Journal, Astrophysical Journal
Supplement Series EM&P Journal, Earth, Moon, and Planets HIRES Proposed ELT high-resolution
ARA&A Journal, Annual Reviews of ePOD education and Public Outreach spectrograph
Astronomy & Astrophysics Department HR Human Resources
ARC ALMA Regional Centre ERIS Enhanced Resolution Imager and HST NASA/ESA Hubble Space
Spectrograph (VLT) Telescope
ArTMiS Architectures de bolometres pour
des Tlescopes a grand champ de ERP Enterprise Resource Planning IAC Instituto de Astrofsica de Canarias
vue dans le domaine sub- ESA European Space Agency IAU International Astronomical Union
Millimetrique au Sol (APEX) ESAC European Science Advisory ICAFAL Ingeniera y Construccin S.A.
ARTIST Adaptable Radiative Transfer Committee (for ALMA) (Chilean construction Company)
Innovations for Submillimetre ESC ELT Subcommittee
Telescopes Icar Icarus, Journal, Planetary science
ESO European Organisation for IET Integrated Engineering Team
ASTRONET EU scheme for astronomy Astronomical Research in the
cooperation and coordination at (ALMA)
Southern Hemisphere
national or regional level in the INAF Italian National Institute for
Member States and Associated ESON ESO Science Outreach Network Astrophysics
States ESPRESSO Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky IPAG Institut de Plantologie et
AT Auxiliary Telescope for the VLTI Exoplanet- and Stable dAstrophysique de Grenoble
Spectroscopic Observations (VLT)
ATLASGAL APEX Telescope Large Area ISAAC Infrared Spectrometer And Array
Survey of the GALaxy EU European Union Camera (VLT)
ATT ALMA Technical Team EWASS European Week of Astronomy and ISS Interferometer Supervisory
Space Science Software (VLTI)
au Astronomical unit (EarthSun
distance) ExA Journal, Experimental Astronomy IT Information Technology
AUI Association of Universities Inc. ExTrA Exoplanets in Transits and their JAO Joint ALMA Observatory
Atmospheres (hosted telescopes,
BlackGEM Telescope array searching for LaSilla) JIRA Proprietary issue tracking product
optical counterparts of JWST James Webb Space Telescope
gravitational wave sources FDR Final Design Review
FIAT Facility for Infrared Array Testing KiDS Kilo-Degree Survey (VST)
CAD computer-aided design
FIDEOS FIber Dual Echelle Optical KMOS K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph
CASA Common Astronomy Software (VLT)
Applications (ALMA) Spectrograph
FLAMES Fibre Large Array Multi Element Kueyen VLT Unit Telescope 2
CCA Cold Cartridge Assembly
Spectrograph (VLT) LABOCA Large APEX BOlometer CAmera
CCD Charge Coupled Device
FORS2 FOcal Reducer/low dispersion LEGA-C Large Early Galaxy Census
CERN European Organization for Nuclear Spectrograph 2 (VLT)
Research LFC Laser Frequency Comb
Gaia Astrometric satellite (ESA) LGS Laser Guide Star
myXCLASS eXtended CASA Line Analysis (LaSilla) VLTI Very Large Telescope
Software Suite SAESA Chilean Electrical company Interferometer
NACO NAOS-CONICA (VLT) SAF Science Archive Facility vOT Visitor Mode Observing Tool
NAOJ National Astronomical Observatory SAPHIRA Selex Avalanche Photodiodes for VST VLT Survey Telescope
of Japan Highspeed Infra Red Applications VVV ESO Public Survey VISTA Variables
NAOMI Adaptive optics system for the ATs SAS Sun Avoidance System (APEX) in the Va Lctea
(VLTI) Science Journal WFI Wide Field Imager (MPG/ESO
NAOS Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System 2.2metre telescope)
SEPIA Swedish ESO PI receiver for APEX
(VLT) XMM-Newton X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite (ESA)
SFR Star formation rate
NASA National Aeronautics and Space X-shooter Wideband ultraviolet-infrared
Administration SINFONI Spectrograph for INtegral Field spectrograph (VLT)
Observations in the Near Infrared
Nature Journal (VLT) Yepun VLT Unit Telescope 4
NewA Journal, New Astronomy SnooPI Snooping Project Interface, an m Micrometre
NewAR Journal, New Astronomy Review intuitive project tracking tool for
NGC New General Catalogue Principal and Co-Investigators
(ALMA)
NGTS Next-Generation Transit Survey
(Paranal) SOFI Son OF Isaac (NTT)
ESO Chile