La Silla Paranal Users Workshop

Optimising science output - Part I: Optimising data exploitation

ESO Garching, September 7-8, 2020 - Online event

If you are interested learning how to write competitive observing proposals and to use associated Phase 1 tools, e.g. the Exposure Time Calculator and the new p1 proposal submission tool, please check the website for the Part II of the 2020/2021 Users Workshop: http://eso.org/sci/meetings/2021/Users-Workshop.html

 

Rationale:

ESO's ground based observatories located in Chile serve a very diverse astronomical community. The La Silla Paranal observatory offers observations with a variety of telescopes, instruments and observing modes, including both Visitor Mode and Service Mode observations. Furthermore, the observatory provides support to its users, follows closely the quality of all observations and status of its instruments, archives the data, and for many instruments delivers science grade pipelines and reduced data products. This level of support relies on a complex machinery that although efficient may be daunting for our user community. In a spirit of transparency and availability, ESO is hereby reaching towards its users to present the various tools and services available, and at the same time, provide help in improving the technical side of their proposals and in reducing the data obtained with instruments in La Silla and Paranal.

Thus, ESO is organising the La Silla Paranal Users Workshop, a series of 3-hours online events, the first of which will take place in early September. If you are a La Silla Paranal Observatory user and are interested in the most up-to-date information, learning how to use the ESO Science Archive Facility, reducing ESO data or "face-to-face" contact with ESO experts working on various support services, this first instalment of the workshop is for you!
Further aspects on the various available instruments, the preparation of proposals and of the observations of the approved program will be dealt with in Part 2 and Part 3, foreseen to happen in 2021.

One part of this event will provide the chance for users to have hands-on experience on topics of their choices, including, but not restricted to, finding information on the ESO web, installing ESO software, running the ESO pipelines and using the Science Archive either to access data or return reduced data to the archive. For this, participants are invited at registration to indicate areas of the programme (preferred instruments, tools usage, ...) they would like to further explore. Participants will then be split in groups, according to interest, or be provided with one-to-one sessions on a best-effort basis.  

If you are a La Silla Paranal Observatory user and are interested in a "face-to-face" contact with the various support services at ESO, this workshop is for you. This workshop will provide you with all the necessary knowledge to make the most out of ESO data and thereby provide a strong momentum to your science.

Topics:

  • ESO as an Observatory
  • Getting the most out of my data: How do I reduce my data?
  • What data can I use from the archive to implement my scientific idea or complement my own data?

We plan to have the workshop on Monday and Tuesday for about 3 hours per day, starting in the early European afternoon.

Contact:

lpousers AT eso.org