ESO Period 99 Proposal Submission Statistics

Published: 19 Oct 2016
ESO 3.6-metre at La Silla

The deadline for proposal submission for Period 99 (1 April – 1 October 2017) was 29 September 2016. 883 valid proposals were submitted, including 22 Large Programmes, of which one is a GTO Large Programme. The number of proposals for P99 is the lowest received in the last 7 periods. The time request also went down, while the number of proposals per PI remained constant. The number of normal proposals is slightly increased from P98, while Large and GTO proposals decreased. The time request decreased for almost all telescopes.

The most requested instrument was again HARPS on the ESO 3.6-metre, with 208.5 nights; on the VLT, MUSE was the most requested instrument with 203.4 nights, followed by FORS2 and X-shooter with 197.9 and 188.8 nights, respectively. The percentages of submitted proposals across science categories were:

  • Cosmology 23.4%
  • Galaxies & Galactic Nuclei 16.1%
  • ISM, Star Formation & Planetary Systems 29.7%
  • Stellar Evolution 30.8%.

As in P98, the request for Service Mode exceeded 80%.

The proposals will be reviewed by the Observing Programmes Committee, which meets in November. Proposers will be informed of the outcome of the review process by the end of the year.