Call for Public Spectroscopic Surveys: ESO invites letters of intent for Public Spectroscopic Surveys with ESO telescopes. A sample template file and figure are now available. The deadline for submission of the letters of intent is 15 October 2010 12:00 CEST.

Telescope time for ESO telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory is allocated twice a year in periods of 6 months. Allocation periods run from 1 October through 31 March, and from 1 April through 30 September. Applications for observing time on ESO telescopes may only be submitted electronically, and only using the ESOFORM proposal submission package obtained from this Web page.

The Call for Proposals describes the conditions under which observing time is offered on the ESO telescopes on the La Silla, Paranal, and Chajnantor (APEX) sites of the Observatory. The document is available in electronic form via this Web page.

The deadline for Period 87 (1 April  2011 - 30 September 2011) is:

30 September 2010

(12:00 noon, Central European Summer Time)

Applications for observation time for the ESO Telescopes have to be prepared using the ESOFORM package, and uploaded via the web. More details are given below.

Please note that conformity checks are performed at proposal submission time. Hence, proposers are strongly recommended to follow the instructions given in the ESOFORM user's manual and to verify, well before the deadline, a "skeleton" version of their proposal that only contains the technical details of their programme.

Proposal Submission

Applications for observation time at ESO Telescopes have to be prepared using only the latest ESOFORM package. Please read the ESOFORM Users' Manual for details. You can submit your proposal to ESO via a web upload at:

In case you need assistance from ESO to prepare your proposal, please send an email to esoform@eso.org.

The above address can be used for all questions and comments related tothe ESOFORM package (how to prepare your proposal, what error messages really mean, etc.), as well as more general questions concerning instrument performance, Observatory policy, etc.

Proposal Preparation Tools

Proposal Preparation Tool are available via Tools and Services and include:

• Summary table: overview of main instrument characteristics
• Evaluating the time required to make the observations: ETC's, Instrument Characteristics, Mag/Flux Converter;
• Determining when objects are best observed, including calculating airmass and other observing parameters: Ephemerides and Calculators;
• Assessing the current and near future weather prospects: Meteo Information and Weather Images and Astroclimatology;
• Accessing a number of astronomical archives and data catalogues: Archives and Catalogues.