Paranal Instrumentation

The offered Paranal telescopes and instruments and their location are listed in the following table

valid for Period 92, October 1, 2013 - March 31, 2014.

A similar overview for Period 91 (April 1, 2012 - September 30, 2012) is available and is relevant for, e.g., P91 DDT proposals.

The links to the different instruments provide an overview of the respective instrument capabilites and the offered instrument modes.

For details please refer to the Call for Proposals for Period 92.
Information on Paranal decommissioned instruments is available on a separate page.

Telescope and Instrument Overheads

Service and Visitor Mode observers must include in their proposals the overhead times associated with their science target observations. In service mode, time for night-time calibrations and associated overheads should only be included in cases where the accuracy of the calibration plan is not deemed sufficient for the science goals. The following tables provides typical times to estimate the overheads associated with their observations. More details can be found in the instrument manuals.