1. PERIOD 91 DELTA-CALL FOR ISAAC PROPOSALS

On account of the technical problems encountered during the re-commissioning of VISIR (see announcement), about 400 hours of observing time have become available at UT3. For this reason, ESO invites proposals for observations at UT3 with the ISAAC near-infrared imager and spectrograph during Period 91. Owing to operational constraints and ongoing time commitments, requests are restricted to the RA range 12 to 22 hours. Although Service Mode is encouraged, the Observatory will consider and evaluate Visitor Mode requests based on their scientific requirements.

Preference is given to programmes with loose moon constraints. However a fraction of the observations can be accommodated during dark time depending on the scientific justification. Proposals must be submitted using the P90 DDT template, which is available via the ESO User Portal. To allow for quick processing of the proposals, the Special Remarks section should contain the following statement: "ISAAC Delta-Call". In the case of a Visitor Mode request, a detailed justification should be given in Box 8b (DDT Justification).

Proposals can be submitted any time before 20 January 2013. Applicants will be informed about the outcome of the selection process as soon as possible after the deadline.

2. OBSERVING RUNS PROGRESS AND SUBSCRIPTION TO NIGHT REPORTS

Starting in December 2012, Paranal Service Mode (SM) users are now able to subscribe to a new service allowing them to receive email notifications whenever their SM Observation Blocks are executed at the Paranal telescopes. The email contains a PDF attachment with the full content of the Night Report of the previous night(s) for those (user's) SM run(s) for which the subscription is active, including the Calibration Plan observations taken under Observatory runs.

The management of the email subscription is regulated in the new Night Log Tool (NLT) run progress index page accessible from the User Portal page "View your list of Observing Runs". Those PI's collaborators, who have either Phase 2 or data delegation rights, can also access the Run Progress pages, view the on-line content of the Night Report(s) and subscribe to the same email notification service.

3. ALMA EARLY SCIENCE CYCLE 1 ALLOCATION

1133 proposals were received in the call for proposals for ALMA Early Science Cycle 1. The PIs of the 196 highest priority proposals have been notified and are listed here.

Observations in ALMA Early Science Cycle 1 are expected to begin in January 2013.

4. FIRST ALMA EARLY SCIENCE DATA PUBLIC

It is ALMA policy to make all science data public after a proprietary period of (usually) one year. As the first ALMA Cycle 0 data were released to the PIs one year ago, they are now becoming public. These data, as well as further Cycle 0 data when their proprietary period expires, can be obtained from the list at http://almascience.org/alma-data. A tar file of the raw and calibrated data for each released programme can be downloaded.

5. ALMA FOOTPRINTS IN Aladin

The interactive sky atlas Aladin now offers the possibility to include the ALMA footprint and has been provided by CDS Strasbourg. Since most ALMA images are expected to be mosaics, the user defines the ALMA band and a rectangular region on the sky which is filled with ALMA primary beams at the given frequency. This region can be interactively displaced and rotated. Aladin provides easy access to the individual pointing centres of the mosaic. A tutorial for the use of the ALMA footprint is available.

6. Ultra-VISTA CATALOGUE AVAILABLE FROM ESO ARCHIVE

The Ultra-VISTA public survey, targeting a sub-area of the COSMOS field, represents the deepest of the six near-infrared ESO public imaging surveys, which are currently being executed with VISTA. The first release of the new infrared source catalogue in the COSMOS field is now accessible from the Science Archive Facility through a new powerful user interface for querying and data download.

Additional Phase 3 catalogue data, which are being submitted by VISTA public survey teams, will soon be made available through the Catalogue Facility.

7. ESO WORKSHOPS

The list of workshops organised by ESO can be found here.
Registration for the following workshops is open:

The Deaths of Stars and the Lives of Galaxies

ESO Vitacura, Santiago, Chile, 08 - 12 April 2013

The conference will cover topics related to the final stages of stellar evolution and the many important aspects of astronomy that depend on understanding how stars die and what happens to their remnants. Topics related to the stars themselves and how their later stages of evolution proceed, as well as how their demise affects their immediate surroundings and host galaxies, will be addressed.

Details can be found here.
The deadline for abstract submission is 31 January 2013.