Science Users Information

These pages are aimed at ESO community astronomers and contain all the information required in order to prepare, execute, process and exploit observations with ESO facilities. They also provide information on the scientific activities taking place at ESO. Details can be accessed via the navigation menu.


ESO Science Announcements

“VLT Beyond 2030” ESO Conference, 26-30 Jan 2026, Garching bei München

Published: 02 Jul 2025

ESO is organising a conference, dubbed “VLT beyond 2030”, in Garching near Munich (Germany) on 26-30 January 2026. ESO aims to maintain the VLT and VLTI at the science forefront of astrophysical research in the ELT era. The development of the facilities follows planning that is discussed with the ESO governing bodies to derive the best synergies amongst the facilities. As part of this process, the “VLT beyond 2030” January 2026 meeting will review science topics, emerging technologies and expanding parameter spaces relevant for the VLT/I in the next decade and beyond. The goal of the meeting is to reach a broad community by covering topics and through contributed talks across scientific topics, new technologies, facilities landscapes, operational opportunities. ESO will issue a call for white papers for new projects/instruments for VLT/I during the conference with a deadline a year later, in January 2027, marking the start of the assessment phase.

4MOST Arrives in Paranal

Published: 02 Jul 2025

Nearly all 4MOST components have now arrived at the Paranal Observatory. Meanwhile, the VISTA telescope has been successfully recommissioned following the modifications required to accommodate 4MOST. The reintegration of the various components—such as the spectrographs and fiber positioner—has now begun, with installation on the telescope scheduled over the coming months. Commissioning will continue through the end of the year, with the five-year survey expected to begin in the first half of 2026.

ESO's Tutorial YouTube Channel: New Content Available

Published: 18 Jun 2025

The ESO user support YouTube channel has been refreshed with new and updated video tutorials. These guides help users prepare their Phase 2 material efficiently, as well as navigate and query the ESO Science Archive.

Release of Pipeline Processed CRIRES+ Spectra

Published: 09 Jun 2025

The release of pipeline processed CRIRES+ spectra provides access to reduced scientific data obtained with the cryogenic high-resolution spectrograph CRIRES+, an upgrade of the original instrument CRIRES, which was available till July 2014. CRIRES+ is in operation at the ESO VLT since October 2021. This instrument is a cross-dispersed infrared echelle specrograph with increased wavelength range covered simultaneously by a factor of ten in respect to the old CRIRES. In addition, CRIRES+ is equipped with a new detector focal plane array composed of three Hawaii 2RG detectors with a 5.3 μm cut-off wavelength, a new spectroparimetric unit was added, and the calibration system was enhanced.

Call for Proposals for ALMA Development Studies

Published: 28 May 2025

ESO is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals (CfP) for development studies for ALMA upgrades, with a deadline for proposal submission on Wednesday 27 August 2025 at 11:00am CEST. Interested institutes should register on the In-Tend portal and express interest in the ALMA Development Studies 2025 with reference FCFP-129429-AMA. The specific focus of this call includes the relevance to the implementation of the ALMA Development Roadmap priorities, and particularly the development of new receiver components allowing an expansion to 4x the current IF bandwidth, as well as software initiatives that enable and maximize the science output of the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade.

The Messenger

The Messenger 194 is now available. Highlights include:

  • Doyon, R., Bouchy, F. et al.: NIRPS Joins HARPS: Setting New Standards at Infrared Wavelengths
  • Nazari, P., Jerabkova, T. et al.: Artificial Intelligence Usage by ESO Telescope Users
  • De Breuck, C., Díaz Trigo, M.: The Promises and Challenges of the ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade

The ESO Science Newsletter

The June 2025 issue is now available.

The ESO Science Newsletter, mailed approximately once per month, presents the most recent announcements. Subscription is controlled through the Manage Profile link on the User Portal. Back issues (2013-) are archived.


Citing ESO data in research papers

Researchers are kindly asked to indicate the identifiers (programme IDs or Data DOIs) of the (new or archival) observations they used in their papers as explained in ESO’s data citation policy. This enables the telbib curators to cross-link research output to make data Findabie, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable as suggested by the FAIR Principles.  


Pitch Your Research to ESO COMM

Are you an author on an upcoming scientific study based on ESO data that could be relevant to journalists or the wider public? Or are you a Principal Investigator on ESO observations with potential to become stunning images? If so, please consider sending to ESO your paper and/or a preview of the image(s) obtained with ESO telescopes.