Workshop to discuss science/technical aspects of AtLAST
ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 17-19 January 2018

A two-year EU-ALMA study on the scientific merit for – and technical implementation of – an Atacama Large Aperture Submm/mm Telescope (AtLAST) is underway. We now invite the community to join in establishing working groups on science and technology aspects of AtLAST. The workshop will be a crucial forum to collect insights and feedback, and commit to a single vision for producing a single dish facility.

The ALMA Observatory has experienced severe winter storms, making it difficult to recover the 12-metre array for Principal Investigator (PI) observations. This has had an even more detrimental impact on the relocation to long baselines. Routine observations utilising the 7-m and Total Power Arrays are ongoing and clearance work is continuing to enable 12-metre array PI science and reconfigure to the longest baselines. An update regarding the revised configuration schedule will be released in the coming weeks; see the ALMA News for more detail.

198 proposals requesting 4815 hours of observing time on the ALMA 7-metre Array were received in response to the Cycle 4 Supplemental Call for Proposals. A total of 32 proposals requesting 716 hours were accepted and added to the 7-metre Array observing queue for the remainder of Cycle 4. See the report for further details.

The 2016 ESO Annual Report is now available, as small or full sized PDF. The Annual Report describes a few science highlights from 2016 and provides a comprehensive summary of last year's activities covering all aspects of the Organisation, including ALMA and the ELT.

The casting of the secondary mirror blank for the ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) was completed by SCHOTT at Mainz, Germany on 11 May 2017. The completed mirror will be 4.2 metres in diameter and weigh 3.5 tonnes. It will be the largest secondary mirror ever employed on an optical telescope and also the largest convex mirror ever produced. See the Release for more details.

A ceremony marking the First Stone of the ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) on 26 May 2017 was attended by the President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria. The event was held at Paranal Observatory in northern Chile, close to Cerro Armazones, site of the ELT. This milestone marked the beginning of the construction of the dome and main telescope structure. The occasion also marked the connection of the Paranal Observatory to the Chilean national electrical grid. See the Release for more details.

Contracts for the manufacture of the 39-metre primary mirror of the ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) were signed on 30 May 2017 at a ceremony at ESO Headquarters. The German company SCHOTT will produce the blanks of the mirror segments, and the French company Safran-Reosc will polish, mount and test the segments. The contract to polish the mirror blanks is the second-largest contract for the ELT construction. See the Release for more details.

ESO Workshop, Garching, Germany, 25–27 October 2017

Full polarisation observation has been routine at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) and will become standard for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the mm and sub-mm wavelength bands (30–1000 GHz) in near future. The aim of the QUESO workshop is to bring together leading and potential science users of mm/sub-mm polarimetry, from research fields including AGN, star formation, solar observations and CMB, with observatory calibration experts and software developers.

Joint Workshop: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera and ESO
Milan City Aquarium, Italy, 9–11 October 2017

The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers and engineers involved in the design, realization and construction of spectroscopic instrumentation, and companies and institutes that produce dispersing elements and associated optical components. The workshop provides a forum for discussing the scientific needs for future instruments and the technological challenges in developing new types of dispersing elements.

The Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics (Athena) is the X-ray observatory mission selected by ESA within its Cosmic Vision 2015–2025 programme to address the Hot and Energetic Universe scientific theme. The ESO-Athena Synergy Team has been tasked to single out the potential scientific synergies between Athena and optical/near-infrared (NIR) and sub/mm ground-based facilities, in particular those of ESO (i.e., the VLT and ELT, ALMA and APEX).