Announcements

1 March 2013: Science verification of the X-shooter data products for SLIT mode observations has been completed. Issues with the data products, such as the noise model, bad pixel propagation and interpolation, and flux calibration, were found and a new improved version of the pipeline has been released and can be downloaded. Improved flux standards and a more detailed pipeline tutorial will be released in the second quarter of 2013.

1 March 2013: The ESO research studentship programme provides an outstanding opportunity for Ph.D. students to experience the exciting scientific environment at one of the world's leading observatories for a period of up to two years. ESO's studentship positions are open to students enrolled in a university Ph.D. programme in astronomy or related fields. Students accepted into the programme work on their doctoral project under the formal supervision of their home university, but for a period of normally between one and two years they come to ESO to work and study under the co-supervision of an ESO staff astronomer. Studentships may be hosted either at ESO Headquarters in Garching (Germany) or at ESO Offices in Santiago (Chile), where additionally two positions per year are provided for students enrolled in South American universities. An article on the scheme can be found in West et al. 2009. The studentship selection takes place on an annual ...

1 March 2013: As of ESO Observing Period 91, the ESO Science Archive Facility (SAF) is the sole access point for data obtained with ESO telescopes. This includes access to proprietary data for both Visitor and Service Mode runs. Typically files become available from the SAF within a few hours of the time of observation. As of 1 April 2013, the proprietary period for all science and acquisition files will run from the moment the file can be accessed and downloaded from the SAF. This means that the "proprietary period" will begin on that date. No PI or PI delegate action will affect the proprietary period. This new implementation applies to all observations belonging to Observing Period 91 and onwards, as well as data from earlier Observing Periods which were carried over to Period 91.

1 March 2013: The Phase 3 validator has been expanded and is now ready to verify VST OmegaCAM DR1 data. The changes are fully described on the Phase 3 web pages. The PIs of the VST Public Surveys and their teams can now test their data products against the ESO Science Data Products Standard (Issue 5, 11.01.2013).

1 March 2013: ALMA data can now be accessed through the ALMA Science Portal.  Public data, i.e. currently Cycle 0 data that are out of the 12 month proprietary period, can be accessed anonymously. Proprietary data are only accessible to the PIs. PIs can allow access to their data to any registered ALMA user by logging into the Science Portal and adding delegees in the Project delegation tab of their user profile. Two ways of accessing the ALMA Science data are offered: A query interface allows users to identify observations that match given search constraints and to download the corresponding data delivery packages. Users who know which project(s) they are interested in can browse the list of data deliveries directly.