In December 2006 the ESO Council gave the go-ahead for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) three-year Phase B study. The Baseline Reference Design (BRD) was presented to the ESO committees in 2006 and to the community at the Marseille meeting in December 2006. Phase B has been running for one and a half years and a progress report is presented covering science activities, telescope design, instrumentation, site selection and operations. The designs are maturing, in close synergy with industrial contracts, and the proposal for E-ELT construction is expected to be presented to the ESO Council in June 2010.

The redshifts of all cosmologically distant sources are expected to experience a small, systematic drift as a function of time due to the evolution of the Universe’s expansion rate. Here, we briefly review the motivation for measuring this effect and summarise our reasons for believing that the E-ELT will be the first telescope to detect it.

Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) and most of their instrumentation will be optimised for operation in the Near-InfraRed (NIR) because of the wavelength dependent performance of adaptive optics. Few established sources for wavelength calibration exist in this wavelength domain. A project is described which aims to provide the basic data to select the best calibration sources for NIR instruments at the European ELT (E-ELT) as a function of wavelength range and spectral resolution. This work directly supports the Phase A studies of E‑ELT instruments; in addition its results will be highly valuable for future use in analysis of NIR science observations.

In May 2008, a new CCD, called Carreras, was installed in the GIRAFFE spectrograph to replace Bruce, the old detector. Carreras is more sensitive to wavelengths redward of 700 nm. The main characteristics and results obtained in the commissioning of Carreras are reported.

This is the story of the Large Programme 666, dedicated to discover sub-stellar objects (extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs), and to measure their masses, radii, and mean densities. We hunt selected OGLE transit candidates using spectroscopy and photometry in the ‘twilight zone’, stretching the limits of what is nowadays possible with the VLT.

On 3 June 2008 an international team of researchers observed one of the brightest near-infrared flares close to SgrA*, the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. For the very first time the flare emission was detected in infrared light, with one of the VLT telescopes, and time delayed in sub-millimetre radiation with the APEX telescope. Recent simultaneous X-ray and infrared flares from SgrA* have been detected and can be explained by spots on relativistic orbits around the central, accreting supermassive black hole. The observations of flares now also show some evidence for time evolution of the spot properties. The investigation of dusty stars and filaments in the central stellar cluster also indicates the presence of a wind from the central region – possibly with a contribution from SgrA* itself.

Photometry and long-slit spectroscopy are presented for 14 S0 and spiral galaxies of the Fornax, Eridanus and Pegasus clusters and the NGC 7582 group. The age, metallicity and α/Fe enhancement of the stellar population in the centres and their gradients are obtained using stellar population models with variable element abundance ratios. Most of the sample bulges display solar α/Fe enhancement, no gradient in age, and a negative gradient of metallicity. One of the bulges, that of NGC 1292, is a pseudobulge and the properties of its stellar population are consistent with a slow build-up within a scenario of secular evolution.

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are powered by accretion onto a supermassive black hole. The unified scheme for strongly accreting AGN postulates that the central engine is enshrouded by a doughnut-shaped structure of gas and dust – the so-called torus. We report observations with the MID-Infrared Interferometric Instrument (MIDI) at the VLT Interferometer, which resolve the tori in the nearest Seyfert 2 galaxies, and suggest a complex structure, consisting of a compact inner disc embedded in a patchy or filamentary outer torus. The prominent nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A, however, shows little sign of a torus. Instead, its mid-infrared emission is dominated by non-thermal radiation from the base of the radio jet. Thus, not all classes of AGN contain a thick torus.

The accelerating Universe was one of the most surprising discoveries of 20th century science. The ‘dark energy’ that drives it lacks a compelling theoretical explanation, and has sparked an intense observational effort to understand its nature. Over the past five years, the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) has made a concerted effort to gather 500 distant Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia), a sample of standard candles with the power to make a 5% statistical measurement of the dark energy’s equation of state. The SNLS sample also provides one of the most uniform sets of SNe Ia available, with a photometric and spectroscopic coverage allowing new insights into the physical nature of SN Ia progenitors. With the survey recently completed, we report on the latest science analysis, and the vital role that the ESO VLT has played in measuring these distant cosmic explosions.

The ESO coordinated study “Optimising Performance, Health and Safety in High-Altitude Observatories” is based on a psychological approach using a questionnaire for data collection and assessment of high-altitude effects. During 2007 and 2008, data from 28 staff and visitors involved in APEX and ALMA were collected and analysed and the first results of the study are summarised. While there is a lot of information about biomedical changes at high altitude, relatively few studies have focussed on psychological changes, for example with respect to performance of mental tasks, safety consciousness and emotions. Both, biomedical and psychological changes are relevant factors in occupational safety and health. The results of the questionnaire on safety, health and performance issues demonstrate that the working conditions at high altitude are less detrimental than expected.

An overview of the ESO/Radionet workshop devoted to 3D optical/near-infrared and sub‑mm/radio observations of gas and stars in galaxies is presented. There will be no published proceedings but presentations are available at http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/gal3D2008/program.html.