Overview

The expected Paranal Instrumentation and Facilities to be offered in Period 110 and changes foreseen for Periods 111 and 112 are presented at the overview page.

General

• Further improvements of the new Phase 1 system (p1) will take place in the following Periods.
  

UT instruments and facilities

• MOONS - the Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph – is expected to be installed at the UT1 Nasmyth A focus during the third quarter of 2023.
• The VLT Visitor Focus at UT1 will be available, but the installation of the field corrector lens for MOONS may pose restrictions.
• FORS1, the upgraded FORS instrument, is expected to be installed and see first commissioning in P113. FORS2 will thus be decommissioned in P113, and  first commissioning of FORS1 without the MXU is planned to occur in P113. Subsequent semesters will see the retrofit of the MXU to FORS1 together with subsequent commissioning.
  
• ERIS, the Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph, is expected to be installed and commissioned during the first quarter of 2022 at the UT4 Cassegrain focus, if the conditions for international travel are favourable. Pending successful commissioning, ERIS might be offered in Period 111.
  
• With the availability of superior VLT capabilities, the IFU mode of XSHOOTER is expected to be decommissioned towards the end of Period 110 or during Period 111.
• MATISSE is expected to be offered for Monitoring Programs in all modes starting in Period 111.
  
• From 2022 Q4, the recoating of the UT+VLTI coude train will continue with M5s and M7s. This activity will be performed one UT at a time, each time implying a two-month unavailability for VLTI+UT operations.
• GRAVITY and the VLTI are undergoing upgrades and enhancements as part of the GRAVITY+ project, with an emphasis on the UTs. GRAVITY dual-field wide is part of these enhancements, and more will be rolled out in the coming periods.