Near Infra-Red Planet Searcher (NIRPS) integration on the 3.6m is expected to start in mid-2019.

Overview

An overview of the expected Paranal Instrumentation and Facilities to be offered for Period 103 and changes foreseen in Periods 104 and 105 is available.

UT instruments and facilities

• NACO will be decommissioned in Period 104.
• Following its upgrade into a cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph, the commissioning of CRIRES on UT3 will continue in Period 103. Depending on successful commissioning, it will be offered in Period 104.
• During the first semester of 2019 VISIR will installed on the Cassegrain focus of UT4 for the New Earths in the α Cen Region - NEAR experiment to allow it to use the Deformable Secondary Mirror. As a consequence, VISIR will not be offered for regular of operation in Period 103.  VISIR will be back for operations on UT3 at the end of 2019.
  
• As a consequence of the previous item, SINFONI will be at the UT3 Cassegrain focus during the first half of Period 103. No obversations with the Laser Guide Star will be possible during Period 103.
  
• Indeed, the decommissioning of  SINFONI is currently foreseen mid-2019 to allow the upgrade and integration of SPIFFI within ERIS – a High angular resolution camera  and 3D spectrograph using the AOF. ERIS is expected to be installed and commissioned during the first semester of 2020 at the UT4 Cassegrain focus.
  
• The combination of MUSE in Narrow Field mode and GALACSI will be offered for regular operations in Period 103, depending on successful commissioning during Period 101.
• ESPRESSO in 4-UT mode will be offered for regular operations in Period 103, depending on successful commissioning during Period 101.
• ESO is evaluating the possibility of offering the UT3 Cassegrain focus for a visitor instrument during Period 103. Interested users are invited to consult the following webpages: Visitor Focus and Applications for Use of the VLT Visitor Focus.

VLTI instruments and facilites

• GRAVITY: depending on successful commissioning, CIAO on-axis may be offered in Period 103. 
  
• Depending on a successful commissioning, MATISSE, the Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment, may be offered in Period 103.
• ESO is evaluating the possibility of offering a focus at the VLTI for a visitor instrument during Period 103. Interested users are invited to consult the following webpages: Visitor Focus and Applications for Use of the VLT Visitor Focus.

• LABOCA: this 870 µm bolometer array may be replaced by a wider-field camera, A-MKIDs, in 2018.
• The new First Light APEX Submillimetre Heterodyne Instrument (nFLASH) will replace both PI230 and the MPIfR PI instrument FLASH on APEX. Commissioning is planned for the second half of 2018, and the new instrument is expected to be offered in P103.
• Backends: A new set of Facility backends with up to 64 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth is expected to be installed on APEX in the second half of 2018. It will serve the instruments SEPIA and SLASH, allowing to record the full IF bandwidth of all receivers.