FORS News

On this page, we list the main changes that affected the instrument and this web site.

March 1, 2008: Important extract from the P82 Call for Proposals - "The polarimetric capabilities of FORS1 will only be offered during the first half of P82. After this time, FORS1 will be offered in its standard configuration with the exception of the IPOL and PMOS modes. Due to the arrival of X-Shooter at the Cassegrain focus of UT2, it is expected that FORS1 operations will end during the second half of P82."
February 27, 2008: Updated FORS1 standard instrument configuration - The R_BESS filter is moved to from Wheel 1 to Wheel 3 and the I_BESS filter from Wheel 3 to Wheel 1. This means R_BESS will be available for IPOL observations, but I_BESS will not.
July 16, 2007: Links to documents relating to the "FORS absolute Photometry Project" added to web page here.
May 21, 2007: FORS spectroscopic pipeline released. See the DFS pages for more details here.
April 12, 2007: These webpages are updated to take into account the new blue FORS1 detector.
April 1 to April 6, 2007: The second commissioning of the new blue sensitive E2V CCD on FORS1 is completed with success. The new camera and new high throughput broad band filters are then already offered in P79.
March 1, 2007: The new mosaic CCD will be offered on FORS1 for the beginning of P80 at the latest, so all P80 proposers should read the information at Blue upgrade to find details of the enhanced capabilities of the instrument. In addition the standard configuration of FORS1 will change from P80 to incorporate the new filters.
January 30 to February 4, 2007: First commissioning of the new blue sensitive E2V CCD on FORS1
November 28, 2006 to December 9, 2006: FORS1 annual maintenance (LADC cleaning, new calibration screen).
November 28, 2006 to December 6, 2006: UT2 M1+M3 mirrors re-coating.
April 1, 2006 : A new HIT mode, the 'multiple-shift' mode, is available on FORS2 for fast simultaneous spectroscopy of science and reference targets.
April 1, 2006 : A new high through-put Volume Phased Holographic grating is offered for FORS1. The new 1200B grism covers the range 373-497nm with a dispersion of 0.61Å/pixel and replaces the 1200g grism in the FORS1 standard grism set.
August 30, 2005 : As of P77, the FORS2 Echelle is decommissioned and replaced by the new and more efficient 1200B grism on FORS1.
February 25, 2005 : These new FORS webpages are released
December 13, 2004 : New Rapid Response Mode (RRM) running for both FORS1+2
June 15, 2004 : New holographic grism GRIS_1200g installed on FORS1
June 5, 2004 : FORS1 moved to Kueyen (UT2) and FORS2 to Antu (UT1)
February 27, 2004: Important update on the FORS1 instrumental polarization