Annual Report 2013

ESO

European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere

Annual Report 2013

ESO

European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere

Annual Report 2013

presented to the Council by the Director General Prof. Tim de Zeeuw The European Southern Observatory

ESO, the European Southern Observa tory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe. It is ESO/J. GirardESO/J. supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil1, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Several other countries have expressed an interest in membership.

Created in 1962, ESO carries out an ambitious programme focussed on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities, enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astro nomical research.

ESO operates three world-class observ- The VLT uses a powerful laser to create a guide star ing sites in the Atacama Desert region in the night sky. of Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. ESO’s first site is at La Silla, sited flagship facility of European astronomy. magnitude 30 have been obtained in a 2400 metres above sea level on a moun- Paranal is situated about 130 kilometres one-hour exposure. This corresponds tain 600 kilometres north of Santiago south of Antofagasta in Chile, 12 kilo to seeing objects that are four billion de Chile. It is equipped with several opti- metres inland from the Pacific coast in times fainter than those seen with the cal telescopes with mirror diameters of one of the driest areas in the world. naked eye. up to 3.6 metres. Scientific operations began in 1999 and have resulted in many extremely suc- One of the most exciting features of the The 3.58-metre New Technology Tele- cessful research programmes. VLT is the option to use it as a giant scope (NTT) broke new ground for tele- optical interferometer (VLT Interferometer scope engineering and design and was The VLT is a most unusual telescope, or VLTI). This is done by combining the the first in the world to have a computer- based on the latest technology. It is not light from two or more of the 8.2-metre controlled main mirror, a technology just one, but an array of four telescopes, telescopes and or from the four 1.8-metre developed at ESO and now applied to each with a main mirror of 8.2 metres movable Auxiliary Telescopes. In this most of the world’s current large tele- in diameter. With one such telescope, interferometric mode, the telescope has scopes. While La Silla remains at the images of celestial objects as faint as vision as sharp as that of a telescope the forefront of astronomy, and is still the fourth most scientifically productive in ground-based astronomy (after Paranal, NRAO and the Keck Observatory), the Paranal site, with the Very Large Tele- scope array (VLT), the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), the world’s largest survey telescope, and the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light, and sited at 2600 metres above sea level, is the (josefrancisco.org) Salgado Francisco ESO/José

ESO’s La Silla Observatory under a perfect sky.

1 Brazil, having signed an Accession Agreement in December 2010, will officially become the 15th Member State of ESO on completion of the requisite ratification process.

2 ESO Annual Report 2013 This panorama shows 28 of the antennas that make up the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. size of the separation between the The next step beyond the VLT is to build advanced instruments. ESO’s offices in most distant mirrors. For the VLTI, this the European Extremely Large Telescope Chile are located in Vitacura, Santiago. is 200 metres. (E-ELT) with a primary mirror 39 metres in They host the local administration and diameter. The E-ELT will be the “world’s support groups, and are home to ESO Each year, about 1800 proposals are the biggest eye on the sky” — the largest Chile astronomers when they are not at submitted for the use of ESO telescopes, optical/near-infrared telescope in the the observatories. This site also contains requesting between three and five times world. The E-ELT will address many of the ALMA Santiago Central Office. ESO more nights than are available. ESO is the the most pressing unsolved questions in Vitacura has become an active node for most productive ground-based observa- astronomy. It may, eventually, revolution- training new generations of researchers, tory in the world, whose operation yields ise our perception of the Universe, much acting as a bridge between scientists in many peer-reviewed publications: in 2013 as Galileo’s telescope did 400 years ago. Europe and Chile. alone, 840 refereed papers based on The start of operations is expected at the ESO data were published. beginning of next decade. The regular Member State contributions to ESO in 2013 were approximately The Atacama Large Millimeter/submilli The ESO Headquarters are located in 130 million euros and ESO employs meter Array (ALMA), the largest ground- Garching, near Munich, Germany. This is around 680 staff members. based astronomy project in existence, the scientific, technical and administrative is a revolutionary facility for world astron- centre of ESO, where technical develop- omy. ALMA comprises an array of 66 ment programmes are carried out to pro- Artist’s impression of the European Extremely Large 12- and 7-metre diameter antennas vide the observatories with the most Telescope in its enclosure on Cerro Armazones. observing at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. ALMA started scientific observations in 2011 and was inaugu rated in 2013. It is located on the high altitude Llano de Chajnantor, at 5000 metres Calçada ESO/L. above sea level — one of the highest astronomical observatories in the world. The ALMA project is a partnership between Europe, East Asia and North America, in cooperation with the Repub- lic of Chile. ESO is the European partner in ALMA.

The Chajnantor site is also home to the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) a 12-metre millimetre and submillimetre telescope, operated by ESO on behalf of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astron- omy, the Onsala Space Observatory and ESO itself.

ESO Annual Report 2013 3

Contents

The European Southern Observatory 2 Foreword 6 Introduction 7 Science 10 Research Highlights 11 Offices for Science 20 Allocation of Telescope Time 24 Publication Digest 27 Operations 30 La Silla Paranal Observatory 31 Data Management and Operations Division 38 European ALMA Support Centre 42 Programmes 44 Instrumentation for the La Silla Paranal Observatory 45 ALMA 52 European Extremely Large Telescope 60 Engineering 62 Administration 72 Finance and Budget 74 Human Resources 78 List of Staff 82 Organigram 86 Director General Support 88 Committees 96 Council 97 Finance Committee 99 Scientific Technical Committee 100 Observing Programmes Committee 102 Users Committee 104 Outreach 108 Calendar of Events 114 Glossary of Acronyms 118

ESO Annual Report 2013 5 Foreword

It is tempting to open this short foreword hiatus in science observations to facilitate ESO has evolved into a very powerful by highlighting a major positive develop- array commissioning, difficulties in get- organisation with an outstanding but very ment. There is possibly none as impor- ting the power production and distribu- challenging programme of infrastructure tant as this one: ESO’s operating tele- tion system into a normal operational to build and operate. In fact it can be scopes at La Silla, Paranal and APEX on state, and a temporary cessation of activ- argued that the span of ESO’s activities is Chajnantor have continued to deliver ities at the ALMA site during negotiations very much at the limit of the capabilities outstanding world-class science. The with the local staff. This fortunately ended of the available budget and of its most very efficient model that ESO has adopted with the signature of a new collective valuable, but not excessively numerous to operate its observatories, together contract. ALMA will no doubt face other staff complement. But there are other with its highly skilled and dedicated staff, challenges on its way to becoming a major future items of astronomical infra- have been instrumental in reaching this fully operational astronomical observa structure in the portfolio of the govern- primary goal of ESO’s remit. Keeping tory. But these potential problems appear ments of ESO Member States. These a healthy instrumentation programme for insignificant when confronted with the governments declare in the preamble of ESO’s facilities, in partnership with insti- absolutely astonishing science that ALMA ESO’s Convention that they are “Desirous tutes from the Member States, is also a delivers. With virtually every single ALMA of […] promoting and organising coopera- fundamental ingredient in maintaining the observation becoming a breakthrough, tion in astronomical research”, which competitiveness of La Silla–Paranal into submillimetre radio astronomy is truly is interpreted as ESO being mandated to future decades. entering a new era. foster cooperation in astronomy. Council has started to reflect on whether ESO In a modest but charming ceremony Council was glad to see significant should take a more proactive role in ena- on 9 November, ESO and the Republic progress towards the ratification of bling these facilities, beyond building and of Chile celebrated 50 years of working Brazil’s Accession Agreement. The file operating its own telescope suite. Our together to foster astronomy. This entered the Brazilian Parliament early sister European international organisa- provided a unique opportunity to look this year and passed with a unanimous tions in space science (ESA) and particle back and realise how much both Chilean positive vote the first two commissions of physics (CERN) have already adopted and European astronomy has evolved the Brazilian Congress. The ratification a strategic role extending beyond their and benefited from this continuing and process continues and the entire ESO own facilities. Is there a similar role to be immensely fruitful partnership. family looks forward to formalising its offi- played by ESO in the realm of large cial welcome to Brazil as its 15th Member ground-based astronomical infrastruc- ALMA, the unique submillimetre obser State. ture? The thinking has just started. vatory that ESO is building and operating in partnership with organisations in The E-ELT programme also made very North America and East Asia, met several significant progress. Early in the year, important milestones during the year. Council received confirmation of the UK’s The President of the Republic of Chile, participation in the programme, and Sebastián Piñera Echenique, inaugurated soon added Denmark to the list of partici- the observatory on 13 March in a cere- pating Member States. At the moment, mony that gathered together dignitaries only Spain is still to formalise its partici- from the partner regions, including all pation in the E-ELT. Fortunately the inter- ESO Council delegates and many nal process taking place within Spain ambassadors and astronomers from all towards joining appears well advanced. over the world, authorities and colleagues Having all the Member States participat- from Chile and representatives from ing in all ESO programmes has proved the local communities. Almost at the to be a major strength of the organisation same time, ALMA welcomed its new and Council looks forward to this phase director, Pierre Cox, replacing Thijs de for the E-ELT. Graauw, who had successfully led the project throughout most of its construc- A key milestone towards E-ELT construction phase. ESO delivered the last of its tion was achieved in November, when 25 highest-quality antennas to ALMA, the Finance Committee — with the sup- thus concluding the largest industrial port of Council — awarded the contract contract ever placed in its history. Coun- to build the road and flatten the top of cil commends all involved in reaching this Cerro Armazones, where the E-ELT will major milestone. be erected. Plans to start procuring major items for the telescope are on the table During its ramp-up from construction to and Council will face important decisions operations, ALMA also faced significant on this critical phase during the coming difficulties, including a planned temporary years.

6 ESO Annual Report 2013 Introduction

The past year has been as exciting and the programme with the Very Large Tele- challenging as 2012 and saw major scope on Cerro Paranal, partnership in progress on many fronts. As already ALMA and APEX on Llano de Chajnantor summarised in the foreword by the Presi- and the construction of the E-ELT on dent of Council, the science output of Cerro Armazones. In this same period the La Silla Paranal Observatory contin- Chile has become the world centre for ues to increase and powerful new instru- ground-based astronomy. This owes mentation is being added. ALMA was much to the determination of the Govern- inaugurated, the 25 antennas from the ment of Chile to protect the extraordinary AEM consortium have been delivered but fragile treasure of its clear and dark and the Early Science results are simply skies, but also to its equally determined stunning. The sustained activities aimed support of science and technology in the at getting the Brazilian Accession Agree- country, to the active promotion of inter- ment ratified by theBrazilian Parliament national cooperation, and to the public started to bear fruit and 13 of the Mem- appreciation of the night sky as a part of ber States have now joined the E-ELT its cultural heritage. programme, with Spain expected to join in the course of 2014. Chile provides far more than a privileged platform for astronomical observation; In late January, the Government of Chile Chilean universities and research institu- hosted the first summit of the Community tions nowadays host internationally rec- of Latin American and Caribbean States ognised scientists and research teams and the European Union, which brought working at some of the leading frontiers many heads of state to Santiago. ESO’s of astronomy and cosmology. In those activities were showcased during the institutions, engineering programmes are The office moves started before the end summit and a number of the high-level being developed to produce state-of- of the year and will be completed in the participants visited Paranal, including the the-art astro-technology products, devel- first quarter of 2014, bringing all Head- leadership of the European Union (Lady oping capabilities and knowhow that also quarters staff into a single set of intercon- Ashton, President Barroso and President benefit many other aspects of Chilean nected buildings. This removes the need Van Rompuy). ALMA’s inauguration in society. ESO is proud to be associated to rent space in the Max Planck Institute March also attracted high-level repre- with such an impressive growth in capa- for Plasma Physics building elsewhere on sentatives of the Member States, includ- bilities and looks forward to further close campus and, finally, allows the removal ing Minister Crato of Portugal and Minis- collaboration in the future. This is an of the venerable portacabins and the ter Töchterle of Austria, as well as the EU example of international cooperation at more recent temporary office building in Science Advisor Glover. its best. the course of 2014.

On 27 October President Piñera of Chile, Careful planning has led to an improve- The day before the inauguration, Dr Klaus accompanied by the Minister of Foreign ment in ESO’s financial situation. As a Tschira formalised the donation of an Affairs Moreno, visited Paranal to hand follow-up to the 2011 engagement sur- impressive Visitor Centre by the Founda- over in person the deed to the tract of vey, full and transparent matrix manage- tion bearing his name. It has been known land containing Cerro Armazones. This ment of engineering services, improved since antiquity that a new star sometimes generous donation had been agreed internal communication — including the appears in the heavens. In the scientific between Chile and ESO in late 2011. The launch of the “Intranews” and regular language of the day, Latin, it was called ceremony signified that all the internal “DG coffees” — and the introduction of stella nova or simply nova. Much later Chilean procedures required for the actu- an improved performance appraisal it was realised that some of these are, in al handover had been completed. This procedure were introduced. Human fact, very distant and hence very bright is a key step towards the realisation of Resources and Administration were (re-) explosions of entire stars and they were the E-ELT, and it allows work to start on combined into a single Directorate of given the name supernova. The unique the construction of a new road to, and a Administration, IT services were harmo- design of the new building resembles that platform on, Armazones. nised across ESO, and the Office of of a close double star transferring mass the Director General was restructured. from one component to the other — a A few days later, a number of activities process that will ultimately lead to the took place to celebrate the 50th anni The long-awaited Headquarters exten- heavier component exploding as a super- versary of the signing of the agreement sion, consisting of a modern office nova, briefly becoming as bright as the between ESO and the Government of and conference building and a separate light from all the stars in the Milky Way Chile for the establishment of the (first) technical building, both designed by Auer together and easily visible from Earth. ESO telescopes in Chile. This led to the Weber and built by BAM Deutschland The expectation is that the new centre creation of the La Silla Observatory and, AG, was inaugurated on 4 December, just will similarly shine like a supernova, gen- subsequently, the further expansion of 18 months after the first stone was laid. erating an enthusiasm and passion for

ESO Annual Report 2013 7 astronomy over a very wide catchment area. Construction will start in early 2015 and will take two years.

ESO’s programme continues to grow, with E-ELT construction about to start. The new Council room is scoped for a further increase in Member States. The technical building has an appropriately sized integration hall for instruments prior to their shipment to the observa tories. The recently improved organisational structure, implementing full matrix management of the engineering services that will allow ESO to efficiently carry out multiple programmes in parallel, is materially helped by having all the staff in buildings connected by the threeway bridge and containing multiple interaction areas. This will help to further improve internal communication and staff engagement.

The engagement of the ESO astronomical community in making use of our facilities remains as high and productive as ever, as symbolised by the fact that the year 2013 saw the 10 000th scientific paper from ESO data. The results obtained with ALMA are already living up to its high expectations, the VLT and APEX are now mature observatories and impressive machines of astronomical discovery and La Silla continues to hold two of the most efficient 4-metre-class telescopes in the world — an excellent starting point for the exciting years ahead when the E-ELT will begin making its contributions.

Part of the interior of ESO’s new office and conference building in Garching.

8 ESO Annual Report 2013 Roland Halbe Roland

ESO Annual Report 2013 9 Science ESO | Acknowledgement: Martin Pugh

10 ESO Annual Report 2013 Research Highlights

Understanding galaxy formation and evolution

This year saw some significant changes The standard model for the formation of Legacy Survey-Wide field. In combina- in the Directorate. The Office for structure in the Universe (known as tion, these surveys will return data for External Relations was closed and its Lambda Cold Dark Matter, ΛCDM) uses close to 200 000 galaxies, which is small functions moved to the Director semi-analytic approximations to model compared to the SDSS, but does reach General. The team of programme sci- the physical processes that lead to the out to redshifts of z ~ 1 when the Uni- entists was completed with the hiring conversion of gas into stars and thus into verse was about half of its present age. of Jean-Philippe Berger for the VLTI galaxies. The baryonic physics involved The first analysis of these surveys, some and now covers all ESO programmes. is complex and not well understood, but of which were reported in previous As part of the matrix structure, the it can be replaced by “gastrophysical” Annual Reports, reveal two interesting instrument scientists have been trans- recipes that, using information extracted results. The first is that the luminosity ferred from the Instrumentation Divi- basically from observations, capture the function of galaxies seems to be the sion and now form a new department information about the various processes same everywhere and every-when we of the Directorate of Science. The involved. Thus, significant progress in the look — and represented by the Schech- Directorate now has a consolidated understanding of the physical processes ter function. The second is that star for- structure, developed as part of the involved in the formation and evolution mation in galaxies seems to cease restructuring of the organisation. The of galaxies necessarily involves statistics abruptly for some unknown reason. The ALMA inauguration was a good that, in turn, require a colossal amount of zCOSMOS team has shown that this moment to advertise ESO and its data. A great leap forward resulted from happens through a mechanism termed activities to a larger community. Sev the exploitation of the Sloan Digital Sky quenching. This seems to exist in two eral scientific workshops explored Survey (SDSS), which provided high qual- distinct flavours: environmental quench- future capabilities, such as one on ity and uniform spectroscopic and photo- ing and mass quenching. In particular, E-ELT instrumentation and a workshop metric information for millions of galaxies. the most massive galaxies in their dark on ultraviolet astronomy. The new However, the SDSS is limited to local matter haloes — called centrals by the electronic Science Newsletter was galaxies, thus providing an accurate pic- zCOSMOS team — only experience launched to improve the flow of infor- ture of only the present structure of gal- mass quenching, while satellites (any oth- mation to the community. axies. The next step is to conduct similar er galaxy in the same halo) stop forming surveys in terms of quality and uniformity, stars by either or both mechanisms. In but reaching galaxies at higher redshifts the case of mass quenching, star forma- and hence longer lookback times in the tion ends rapidly when galaxies reach history of the Universe. a certain mass. There is, as yet, no good theory to explain how this mechanism The VIMOS spectrograph has under- works, but one hypothesis is that when taken three such large surveys: VVDS, the star formation rates reach a certain covering several existing imaging surveys; threshold, the gas is violently and effi- zCOSMOS, targeting the Hubble Space ciently expelled from the galaxies, driven Telescope (HST) COSMOS field, and either by supernovae, stellar winds, or VIPERS, which is observing galaxies in some other mechanism. This results in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope there being no, or very little, gas remaining

The main panel shows the stellar disc of NGC 253 in the Two Micron All Sky This glowing jumble of gas clouds make up a Survey JHK composite. The inset huge stellar nursery nicknamed the Prawn shows the central 2 kpc in false colour Nebula. Taken using the VLT Survey Telescope (soft X-ray emission, blue; Hα emis- at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, this pic- sion, yellow). The white contours rep- ture shows clumps of hot newborn stars nestled resent CO emission distribution ob in among the clouds that make up the nebula. served by ALMA. (Bolatto et al., 2013)

ESO Annual Report 2013 11 to fuel subsequent periods of active star formation.

ALMA has made a number of observations both in the local Universe and at high redshifts that appear to support this scenario. Locally, ALMA observed the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 in the Sculptor Group, located a mere 3.4 Mpc from our own galaxy. This galaxy is expe- Rosolowsky (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Erik ALMA riencing a powerful burst of star formation in its nuclear region, as shown in the figure to the right, and which has been known for some time to be driving a powerful wind of ionised gas.

Several of the extra-planar carbon monoxide (CO) features can be traced back in position and velocity to expanding molecular shell structures in the starburst region of NGC 253, providing clues to the launching mechanisms of the molecular wind. Two of these structures were This picture shows a view of a three-dimensional with pink being the strongest and red the weakest. found by previous CO observations and visualisation of ALMA observations of cold carbon These data have been used to show that huge monoxide gas in the nearby starburst galaxy amounts of cool gas are being ejected from the cen- dubbed superbubbles. Four expanding NGC 253 (The Sculptor Galaxy). The colours repre- tral parts of this galaxy. This will make it more diffi- shells with radii of 60–90 pc and expan- sent the intensity of the emission detected by ALMA, cult for the next generation of stars to form. sion velocities of 23–42 km/s are found. The large momentum associated with each shell suggests that they are driven clouds outside the Milky Way and the In general, it is not clear what fraction of by the combined effects of multiple stellar Large Magellanic Clouds, but can be the outflowing gas actually escapes winds and — at later stages — by super- inferred to be between 3 and 30 MA/yr, galaxies, particularly for low-velocity star- novae originating in young stellar clusters with a value of about 9 MA/yr using burst-driven winds like that in NGC 253. that are not directly observed and for the Milky Way CO to H2 conversion ratio. Most of the baryons ejected by winds which, from the expanding shell dynam- may just linger in the enriched haloes of 4 ics, masses of about 6–40 × 10 MA for Thus, even in the most conservative star-forming galaxies to later rain back ages tcluster < 3 Myr are inferred. case, the molecular mass-loss rate is onto their discs, providing fuel for new comparable to the observed star forma- episodes of star formation. The ALMA

The total molecular mass outflow rate tion rate (~ 2.8 MA/yr) in the starburst observations of NGC 253 show that the driven by these winds is uncertain, mostly of NGC 253 and probably a few times mass-loading of the starburst-driven wind because the ratio of CO mass to total higher. Consequently, the central regions is substantial and underlies the impor- molecular hydrogen (H2) mass is in gen- of NGC 253 will run out of gas in a few tance of recycling the enriched material in eral poorly constrained for molecular tens of millions of years. the star formation history of galaxies.

High-redshift galaxies

ALMA is also providing fundamental as submillimetre galaxies, are so dusty the redshifts of submillimetre galaxies information about star formation and that they are rendered extremely faint at from their submillimetre spectrum. molecular outflows in the furthest optical and infrared wavelengths, making reaches of the Universe. In particular, it difficult to identify and obtain their ALMA observations of 26 submillimetre ALMA has finally removed the barrier that redshifts in earlier submillimetre surveys galaxies from a sample found in a survey had severely hampered the identification carried out with much lower spatial with the South Pole Telescope (SPT) of the most massive star-forming galaxies resolution. One of the promises of ALMA confirmed that 23 of these 26 galaxies lie in the Universe. These galaxies, known was to allow the direct determination of at redshifts z > 4, substantially increasing

12 ESO Annual Report 2013 ALMA maps of extreme star-forming SPT 0103–45 SPT 0113–46 SPT 0125–47 SPT 0346–52 SPT 0418–47 galaxies at z > 4 (red contours). The greyscale images are either space or ground-based near-infrared images of the lensing galaxies, mostly from HST or the VLT spectrometer ISAAC. (Vieira et al., 2013) z = 3.090 z = 4.232 z = 2.514 z = 5.656 z = 4.224 HST/WFC3 HST/WFC3 VLT/ISAAC HST/WFC3 VLT/ISAAC

SPT 0529–54 SPT 0538–50 SPT 2134–50 SPT 2146–55 SPT 2147–50

z = 3.369 z = 2.782 z = 2.780 z = 4.567 z = 3.761 SOAR/OSIRIS HST/WFC3 HST/WFC3 VLT/ISAAC VLT/ISAAC the fraction of massive star-forming Recent observations on the VLT with The special configuration of this object, galaxies at high redshifts. Interestingly, all the spectrographs SINFONI and UVES, with the QSO just a few arcseconds the galaxies in this sample are strongly however, find that this simple interpreta- away, allows both the cold material, lensed by foreground galaxies (see top tion may actually be an over-simplifica- which is seen in absorption against the figure); otherwise, they would have been tion. The observations target a starlight of the QSO, and the hot gas which far too faint to be detected by the SPT, forming galaxy at z = 2.3 that is close to is seen in emission, to be probed. This which, although at an excellent site, is still a QSO (quasar). The beauty of this com- allowed the authors to build a reasonably a rather small telescope. bination is that, by observing the QSO realistic simple model of the outflows at high resolution with UVES it is possible and inflows of gas in this galaxy, shown in Continuing observations of submillimetre to obtain information about the neutral the bottom right figure. Notably, both galaxies in the early Universe with ALMA interstellar medium of the star-forming the rates of infalling and outflowing gas and with other interferometers seem to galaxy. Coupled with a study of the prop- are similar, within the uncertainties, to the indicate that starburst galaxies with a erties of the ionised interstellar medium rate at which the galaxy is converting gas wide range of star formation rates drive with the adaptive optics (AO)-assisted into stars — a few tens of solar masses molecular gas outflows at rates compara- mode of SINFONI, this enables a detailed per year. This would suggest that some ble to or larger than the rates at which picture do be drawn of the kinematics sort of well-regulated feedback process they form stars. This indicates that mass- of gas around the central regions of the is operating in this galaxy, although the quenching occurs even before the onset galaxy (see bottom centre figure). authors offer no detailed indications of of supernovae or the growth of super- how this might actually work. massive black holes in their nuclei.

SINFONI flux map Modelled velocity field ~60º Quasar R Quasar 2 2 150 Outflow ) –1 s

1 1 m c) c) (k Galaxy 50 Accretion ty Galaxy loci seconds seconds

0 0 ve t rc rc QSO c (a c (a –50 sigh f- De De

Δ –1 Δ –1 Line-o

–150 –2 –2

–2 –1 0 1 2 –2 –1 0 1 2 ΔRA (arcseconds) ΔRA (arcseconds) Toy model showing the supernova-driven outflow (red) and the inflow of cold gas with low angular Left: Narrowband (rest-frame Hα) SINFONI AO image of a star-forming galaxy. The quasar HE2243–60 and momentum from the intergalactic medium (blue). As the z ~ 2.3 galaxy are marked. Right: The fitted the accreting cold gas dissipates its angular momen- velocity field along with the fluxcontours. The dotted tum it migrates toward the galaxy, forming an line shows the kinematic major axis. (Bouché et al., extended gaseous disc-like structure. The quasar 2013) line of sight (shown in yellow) intercepts only accreting gas, leading to the distinctive kinematic features seen in the UVES spectra. (Bouché et al., 2013)

ESO Annual Report 2013 13 Active galactic nuclei

In recent decades astronomers have for if it is distributed in the form of 1.0 gathered compelling observational clumps. The most recent observations evidence that almost every galaxy hosts are providing both a detailed and a statis- a massive black hole at its centre. In tical new view of AGN. 0.8 a number of cases, the black hole is so

massive that its accreting and emitting By accumulating numerous interfero raction 0.6 f power can dominate the radiation spec- metric observations using pairwise com- ce trum of the entire galaxy. binations of all Unit Telescopes (UTs), our t s 0.4 the mid-infrared emission of the AGN in The cores of these active galaxies are NGC 3783 has been exquisitely mapped. Po called active galactic nuclei (AGN) and These observations reveal that the warm 0.2 NGC 1068 are among the most energetic objects dust, as observed in the mid-infrared, Type 1 AGN in the Universe. They are the focus of is aligned with the polar axis of the accre- Circinus Type 2 AGN 0.0 intense observational and theoretical tion disc, which is approximately per 0510 15 study since they provide unique laborato- pendicular to the hot dust previously Resolution/Inner radius rin ries for probing the accretion and ejection observed with the AMBER instrument. processes around a central supermas- Both separate regions correspond to two The level of unresolved flux as a function of resolu- sive black hole. distinct bumps in the infrared spectral tion. It is evident that resolution plays only a minor role in how the torus appears at mid-infrared wave- energy distributions. This result is surpris- lengths, proving the diversity of morphologies. Several classes of active galaxy have ing since it is difficult to reconcile with a (Burtscher et al., 2013) been defined based on their observa single equatorial dust torus, the standard tional properties. Some of the most pop- picture for the dusty region in AGN. Thus, ular unified models propose to explain these results are a strong incentive to part of the mid-infrared flux originates on these differences as a consequence of revise current models to account for this scales included within the 0.1–10 parsec the orientation of the galaxy with respect observation by including the contribution region around the central black hole. to the observer’s line of sight. In these of dusty winds. Secondly, the large variety of measured models, the presence of a geometrically emission radii, even for AGN with similar thick dusty torus, surrounding a massive MIDI has also been used to carry out luminosity, challenges the view that a sin- accretion disc that powers a strong the first VLTI Large Programme observa- gle mechanism is responsible for the wind and feeds the central black hole, is tion of sample of 23 AGN. This remark emission. Apart from the amount of unre- invoked to account for the different able achievement was made possible solved flux, no significant difference was apparent classes. Within this paradigm, by pushing the limits of the technique found between sources seen from the the torus emission dominates the entire beyond the existing sensitivity frontier to polar direction (type 1) and those seen mid-infrared spectrum. However, there reveal the diversity of dusty AGN tori. The from close to the disc plane (type 2). is accumulating evidence that the picture first conclusion of the programme is that might be more complex and require addi- a significant fraction of the sources show Although the dust tori are thought to be tional physical processes to be taken into unexpectedly high levels of unresolved very similar in all sources, radiative trans- account. flux, even at the milliarcsecond resolution fer simulations predict, contrary to the of the VLTI. This means that a significant new observations, significant differences Challenging these models requires observations at spatial scales where the different components can be resolved. These direct observations are mandatory 10.00 to bridge the gap between large-scale and inner-scale structures. Only infrared interferometry can provide the required 10-milliarcsecond resolution. c) (p

1.00 The Very Large Telescope Interferometer radius and its MIDI instrument have been extensively used in recent years to develop a -light 0.10

new understanding of AGN. In particular Half they have provided direct evidence that Mid-IR interferometry (Type 1 AGN) the dust emission can only be accounted Mid-IR interferometry (Type 2 AGN) Near-IR interferometry (Swain, Kishimoto, Pott, Weigelt) Near-IR reverberation mapping data + ﬁt (Suganuma) 0.01 The size–luminosity relation of AGN tori from the sublimation radius (green and orange points) to the 1042 1043 1044 1045 1046 1047 1048 “body” of the torus (MIDI, blue and red points — type 1 and type 2 sources). (Burtscher et al., 2013) Bolometric luminosity (erg/s)

14 ESO Annual Report 2013 in the observed size when viewed from Overall these studies have revealed the UTs to be combined, MATISSE will pro- different directions. This is a problem for necessity to revise significantly the dust vide ten times more information in a the orientation-based unified models distribution models at parsec scales single observation than MIDI. The near- upon which these simulations are based. around supermassive black holes and are infrared second generation VLTI instru- Finally, for the best-resolved sources a strong incentive to pursue the accu ment GRAVITY will provide comple where evidence of extended polar elon mulation of spatially resolved observa- mentary information by measuring the gation was revealed, the compact tions. The possibility to resolve and dis- size and geometry of the broad-line emission could be accounted for by a tinguish the exact morphologies of the regions that are located closer to the thindisc model attributed to the inner- mid-infrared emission of a number of supermassive black hole. This will open most part of the dusty torus. Such mod- AGN will be greatly facilitated by the suc- the way to detailed statistical studies els do not, however, provide the cover- cessor to the MIDI instrument, MATISSE. and improve dramatically our understanding factor needed for this type of unifica- This instrument will be operational at the ing of the physical processes occurring at tion. VLTI around 2017. By allowing the four parsec scales in AGN.

Weather on brown dwarfs: between stars and planets

Brown dwarfs are more massive than areas would represent thicker clouds that planets, but not massive enough to initi- obscure deeper and hotter parts of the ate the sustained hydrogen fusion in their atmosphere, whereas bright regions cor- cores that powers self-luminous stars. respond to holes in the upper cloud lay- They are born hot as a result of gravita- ers that provide a view of the hotter, tional energy being transformed into heat 4.1 h 0.0 h deeper interior. The high-latitude bright during their contraction phases. They spot could be similar to the polar vortices then slowly cool as they age. As they fall 3.2 h 0.8 h seen on Jupiter and Saturn, and pre below ~ 2300 K, liquid or crystalline par- dicted to exist on highly irradiated gas 2.4 h 1.6 h ticles composed of calcium aluminates, giants in short-period orbits around other silicates, and/or iron condense into stars. Jupiter and Saturn also exhibit atmospheric “dust” that, in turn, disap- prominent atmospheric bands, but the pears at around 1300 K. Models to data from the CRIRES spectrograph explain this dust dispersal incorporate an are not sufficiently sensitive toenable the abrupt sinking of the entire cloud deck detection of banding on the star. into the deep, unobservable part of the Surface map of Luhman 16B showing a bright near- atmosphere, or a breakup of the cloud polar region (seen in the upper-right panels) and Long-term monitoring of Luhman 16B a darker mid-latitude area (lower-left panels) consist- into scattered patches as seen, for exam- ent with large-scale cloud inhomogeneities. The suggests that its weather conditions ple, on Jupiter and Saturn. Up until now, lightest and darkest regions shown correspond to change rapidly, but remain at least partly however, observations of brown dwarfs brightness variations of roughly ±10%. The rotation coherent from one night to the next, indi- have been limited to globally integrated period of this star is 4.1 hours. (Crossfield et al., cating that the characteristic timescale 2014) measurements and such measurements, for the evolution of global weather pat- although they can reveal surface inhomo- terns is of order one day. In this case, geneities, cannot unambiguously resolve angle of the rotation axes of the star and successive full nights of Doppler imaging surface features. therefore to use Doppler imaging tech- could observe the formation, evolution niques to construct the cloud map. This and breakup of global weather patterns New high-resolution observations with is shown in the figure above over a full — the first time such a study would be the VLT spectrometer CRIRES of the rotation period of the star. The map possible outside the Solar System. binary brown dwarf Luhman 16AB, shows a large, dark, mid-latitude region; Measurements of this kind would provide located a mere 2 pc from the Sun, have a brighter area on the opposite hemi- a revolutionary new benchmark against allowed, for the first time, a map of sphere located close to the pole; and which to compare global circulation the two-dimensional dust distribution mottling at equatorial latitudes. models of dusty atmospheres and could, on one of the stars, Luhman 16B, to be perhaps, even measure differential rota- constructed. These features are naturally explained tion in Luhman 16B’s atmosphere. as the patchy global clouds that are The fact that the system is a binary made inferred to exist from observations of it possible to constrain the inclination multi-wavelength variability. The dark

ESO Annual Report 2013 15 Planet formation

Planetary systems are expected to form millimetre- and centimetre-size pebbles in many of the “transition” discs, suggest- in protoplanetary discs around young pre- — the first step towards the formation of ing that this feedback process from plan- main-sequence stars. The diversity of the rocky cores of planets — and by ets on the outer disc is a common feature rocky and giant planets and the charac- studying the transition of molecules from and may be the dominant mechanism for teristics of their atmospheres are thought ices into the gas phase in the warmer the formation of large bodies at large dis- to result from a combination of the for regions of the discs. tances from the central star. mation mechanism and the subsequent dynamical evolution. ALMA’s current (Sub-)millimetre continuum observations The high sensitivity of ALMA, even under capabilities allow us to trace the initial are sensitive to the thermal emission from the limited conditions of Cycle 0, has steps of the planet formation process in millimetre-size particles in the midplane allowed relatively high angular resolution two ways: by observing the growth of of the disc. ALMA observations of the and good sensitivity maps of different solids from micrometre-size particles to young protoplanetary disc surrounding molecular species in protoplanetary discs the source IRS 48 in Ophiuchus have to be made. Importantly, it is now possi- Intensity (Jy/beam) shown that these dust grains are concen- ble to observe the indirect chemical 0.00 0.05 0.11 0.16 0.21 0.27 0.32 trated in a very specific region of the disc effects of the drop of CO abundance in

0 65 131196 261327 392 with respect to that containing the micro- the gas phase as it condenses on the Intensity (σ) metre-size grains observed in the infrared dust ice mantles in the cooler regions of 1.0 with the VISIR instrument on the VLT (see the disc (T < 20 K). The snowlines of CO A figure to the left). This spatial concentra- (the most abundant molecule after H2)

) 0.5 tion of large grains can be explained by a and water are very important in under- radial and azimuthal gas pressure “dust standing the planetary formation process trap” that is anticipated from numerical and, in particular, the accretion of CO cseconds 0.0 ar simulations of disc–planet interactions. and/or H O onto planetary atmospheres.

c ( 2

De The emerging picture is that it is planet The H O snowline is still too close to the

Δ 2 –0.5 formation feedback that perturbs the gas central star to be observed directly by 30 AU distribution in the disc, creating pressure ALMA in Cycle 0, but the detection of the –1.0 traps that efficiently confine dust. This CO snowline with ALMA Science Verifi B PA overcomes the growth/migration barriers cation and Cycle 0 data is a major mile- to the formation of cometary-sized bodies stone towards our understanding of how ) 0.5 in the outer disc. Similar, less extreme, planetary atmospheres are assembled structures have been detected by ALMA (see figure below).

cseconds 0.0 ar c ( 3 De + Δ –0.5 Continuum CO J = 3–2 N2H J = 4–3 2 s) –1.0 1 C μm — dust

second 0 rc

) 0.5

(a –1 Δδ

cseconds 0.0 –2 50 AU ar

c ( –3 De Δ –0.5 3210–1 –2 –3

mm — dust Δα (arcseconds) –1.0 1.00.5 0.0 –0.5 –1.0 B 1017 Top: ALMA observations of the proto- ΔDec (arcseconds) –9 NH × 10 planetary disc around the young near- Top (A): ALMA Band 9 (450 µm) continuum emission 1016 by star TW Hya. Top left: Dust contin- )

–2 uum emission at 850 µm; top centre: image of the protoplanetary disc around IRS 48 in 13 –4 m N( CO) × 10 Ophiuchus, showing the uneven distribution of dust 1015 Gas phase CO emission; top right: gas + grains in the outer disc (the white star shows the posi- y (c phase N2H emission. Bottom panel: tion of the central star and the dashed ellipse marks 14 + Chemical model for the radial chemi- 10 N(N2H ) cal structure of the midplane of the

the inner edge of the outer disc cavity). Middle (B): densit Red and blue wings of warm carbon monoxide disc. In the cooler regions of the disc 13 emission from the disc are depicted as contours 10 where the CO condenses onto the overlaid on the continuum emission, showing the dust icy mantles, the gas phase abun- Column 12 + disc rotation around the central star. Bottom (C): The 10 dance of N2H increases. (Qi et al., emission from small µm-sized particles throughout 2013) the disc is shown in the orange contours (VLT/VISIR 1011 image) overlaid on the submillimetre emission from 10 100 millimetre-size grains. (van der Marel et al., 2013) Radius (AU)

16 ESO Annual Report 2013 References

The following papers were used as sources for the research highlights.

Crossfield, J. M. et al. 2014, Nature, 505, 654 Biller, B. A. et al. 2013, ApJ, 778, L10 Bolatto, A. D. et al. 2013, Nature, 499, 450 Bouché, N. M. T. et al. 2013, Science, 341, 50 Burtscher, L. 2013, A&A, 558, A149 Hönig, S. F. et al. 2013, ApJ, 771, 87 Qi, C. et al. 2013, Science, 341, 630 Riechers, D. A. et al. 2013, Nature, 496, 329 van der Marel, N. et al. 2013, Science, 340, 1199 Vieira, J. D. et al. 2013, Nature, 495, 344

The Milky Way glitters brightly over ALMA’s antennas

on the Chajnantor Plateau. Tafreshi ESO/B.

ESO Annual Report 2013 17 18 ESO Annual Report 2013 This image shows the cloud of cosmic gas and dust known as Gum 15. It is the birthplace and home of massive young stars. Offices for Science

Paranal renaissance Science highlights goal of strengthening the AO expertise on Paranal in preparation for the arrival of On 25 May 1998 the first light of the first We should never forget that in order to SPHERE. Dimitri is particularly known as VLT Unit Telescope (Antu) opened a new deploy and maintain this new generation the inventor of the Vortex coronagraph. era for European astronomy. This year, of instruments and further exploit the full In 2012/2013, Dimitri experienced a burst we celebrated the 15th anniversary of this potential of the observatory, we need in the number of requests for his corona- historic event (see ESOcast 57: http:// highly skilled people. Among these, ESO graph (installed recently on the NACO www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1322a/). staff astronomers show a high degree of spectrograph at the VLT, and at the Large The VLT is today the most productive commitment to a programme that sees Binocular Telescope) thanks to its high ground-based observatory, with about the service delivered to the community as scientific potential in the field of direct 12 papers published per week based an important part of ESO’s core mission. imaging of exoplanets and discs. He co- on data obtained at the Paranal Observa- ESO also understands that only by being authored other scientific papers (one of tory. active scientists themselves can the those led by his PhD student, J. Milli), and staff astronomers interact with the astro- participated in the breathtaking result Science is much more than dry numbers: nomical community to push the instru- published in Nature (Casassus et al., it is about expanding our knowledge ments to deliver the science for which 2013) where ALMA observations suggest and comprehension of the Universe, trig- they were conceived and beyond. that a protoplanet sitting in the gap of a gering breathtaking discoveries such protoplanetary disc is accreting gas from as observing the stars orbiting the super- It is one of the tasks of the Offices for the outer disc: this would be the first massive black hole at the centre of the Science to help the astronomers to excel “image” of the process of planetary build- Milky Way; the first direct image of an in this challenging task of performing well ing (Press Release eso1301: http://www. exoplanet; and providing the definitive on both fronts. eso.org/public/news/eso1301/). proof that some gamma-ray bursts are spawned by supernova explosions. This year, the ESO Offices for Science in Dimitri’s expertise is acknowledged by Chile and Germany would like to highlight his participation in several expert com- The questions we ask and the answers the performance of six distinguished staff mittees. Last year he helped to develop a we find are tightly linked to our ability to members, two Faculty members, two roadmap to guide ESO’s research and design, build and operate cutting-edge Fellows and two Students, namely Dimitri development plan for the Planetary telescopes and instruments. The VLT Mawet, Oscar González and Julien Milli Camera and Spectrograph of the E-ELT instrument portfolio deployed over the in Chile and Carlos de Breuck, Claudia and participated in the definition of a last 15 years is impressive: from the very Lagos and Dominika Wylezalek in Ger- coronagraphic NASA mission piggyback- first generation to the latest ambitious many, for their outstanding scientific per- ing on the Wide-Field Infrared Survey instruments such as the spectrograph formance, their contributions to the sci- Telescope, using the AFTA/Nobeyama KMOS (first light in 2013), the 3D-spectro entific life in Vitacura and Garching and Radio Observatory telescopes. Dimitri graph MUSE (first light in January 2014) the synergies with their functional work. participates intensively in our science life. or the exoplanet imager SPHERE, which Together with Julien Girard and Zahed should be followed in a few years from Dimitri Mawet arrived at ESO from JPL/ Wahhaj, he promotes the Deep Imaging now by the commissioning of GRAVITY, NASA as a well-established expert in the Group (DIG) group and supervises stu- ESPRESSO and MATISSE. field of high-angular resolution and high- dents both in-house and abroad. He contrast imaging. He had the well-defined is also a member of the Fellowship and

Julien Milli, Oscar González and Dimitri Mawet in Claudia Lagos, Carlos de Breuck and Dominika Santiago. Wylezalek in Garching.

20 ESO Annual Report 2013 Group photograph taken during Science Day 2013 at ESO Headquarters.

We are delighted that Julien has accepted an offer to become an ESO Chile Fel- low. His duties are sure to include playing a key role in making SPHERE a revolutionary machine in the field of extrasolar planets and debris discs.

After holding a Marie Curie Fellowship at the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris and an ESO Fellowship in Garching, Carlos de Breuck obtained an ESO staff position in 2006 as the APEX project scientist and APEX support astronomer. Carlos has a passion for high-redshift objects, with an emphasis on radio galaxies, which he studies both to probe their intrinsic properties and to use them as tracers of the global galaxy population. Carlos is a very experienced observer and has led pro- Studentship Selection Committee in After a first PhD year spent at the Institut jects at many ESO facilities (NTT, ESO Chile. All this was achieved while main- de Planetologie et d’Astrophysique de 3.6-metre telescope, VLT) and elsewhere taining a friendly, open-minded and Grenoble (IPAG) under the supervision of (Keck, Subaru, William Herschel Tele- ethical attitude towards his colleagues. David Mouillet, Julien Milli joined ESO scope, etc.). Carlos then built up very Chile to carry out the last two years of his strong expertise as a submillimetre Oscar González joined ESO Chile as a degree working with Dimitri Mawet and astronomer, supporting all aspects and Fellow at the end of 2012. His science Julien Girard. phases of the APEX observations, repre- centres on projects related to the scientif- senting ESO within the APEX collabora- ic exploitation of the ESO VISTA Public This year Julien delivered an impressive tion and being the APEX contact point Survey VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea amount of high quality work related to the for several committees. Carlos thus (VVV) survey data. In particular Oscar technical aspects of high-contrast imag- became a key figure in important collabo- made an important contribution to our ing and its respective science applica- rations making use of APEX, ALMA or the understanding of the Galactic Bulge, tions such as the direct detection of plan- Australia Telescope Compact Array, but which has recently been shown to have etary mass companions and the study of also with programmes involving the Euro- an X-shape, probably due the presence debris discs, which comprise his main pean Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel of a bar (Vasquez et al., 2013; http:// thesis topics. He was first author of a and SINFONI at the VLT. This year, Carlos www.eso.org/public/news/eso1339/). paper in 2012 and two more in 2013, with published an impressive set of 16 papers, a total of nine papers in his short but playing a critical role in many of them. Oscar injects a lot of positive energy into promising career. He has been very His scientific achievements for 2013 our science environment in Vitacura and active in advertising his results at interna- include colloquia, lunch talks or invited he actively contributes as colloquium tional conferences and within the star talks at international conferences. Carlos organiser and co-supervisor of the PhD formation community in Santiago that is a dedicated and passionate supervisor student Sergio Vázquez. This year, Oscar comprises astronomers from ESO Chile, to students, advising or co-advising also mentored another PhD student, ALMA and faculty members from some two PhDs at ESO (Bitten Gulberg and Bruno Dias. He is a regular contributor at Chilean institutions. Dominika Wylezalek); Carlos co-chairs our science-related gatherings, leading the local organising committee for the and instigating discussions and giving Julien has energetically integrated ESO 3D2014 workshop, taking place in talks. On the mountain, Oscar has dem- himself into our science environment. March 2014 in Garching, and was a onstrated a strong team spirit and com- With a generous and committed attitude, reviewer for French Agence Nationale de mitment to the programme. He almost he has been a strong contributor to la Recherche and European Research immediately became the VIRCAM instru- events led by the PhD students. He is Council proposals. ment fellow where, thanks to his exper- one of the organisers of the AO/DIG tise gained through his science and as a group in Vitacura, holding frequent dis- Claudia Lagos joined ESO in October team member of the VVV, he is playing a cussions with the key scientists. More 2012 after she received her PhD at the key role in the VIRCAM Instrument Oper- over, whenever he can, he doesn’t Institute for Computational Cosmology in ations Team, helping to keep VIRCAM hesitate to volunteer to take part in out- Durham, for which she won the Springer delivering top-quality data. reach activities. Thesis prize, and more recently the

ESO Annual Report 2013 21 MERAC prize for the best thesis from the first author papers, and contributed to Themed groups were merged by having a European Astronomical Society. Claudia’s two other refereed papers. She pre coordinator on each side and joint collo- background is mainly theoretical with an sented a talk at the Sexten Conference quia and morning coffees are regularly emphasis on active galactic nuclei, star on high-redshift clusters around radio- organised. This helps to spread expertise formation and feedback, via the develop- loud AGN and their luminosity functions: and allow participants to acquire a com- ment and use of semi-analytic models, Dominika showed results on the evolu- mon language. Cross-training sessions but she came to ESO to expand her hori- tion of mid-infrared luminosity functions were held during the year and all science zons and develop her taste for observa- of a large sample of high-z clusters committees have JAO representatives. tions. (1.3 < z < 3.2) that hint at a star formation The pay-off will come when the common epoch as early as z ~ 4: this unexpected science projects mature. During her first year at ESO, Claudia result certainly caught the attention of showed a remarkable development in the audience and was even mentioned in terms of her network of collaborators the summary talk. Dominika has been Fostering collaborations (within and beyond ESO) and the projects very active in preparing the spectro in which she is involved. She is applying scopic follow-up from Spitzer’s CARLA This was also an important year in her skills to take on new challenges, project, played a major role in two Garching, with the inauguration of the new working on proto-clusters — joining the successful Keck/MOSFIRE proposals, extension to the ESO Headquarters in Spitzer Extragalactic Representative and is the Principal Investigator (PI) of a December. This will finally gather together Volume Survey collaboration — and get- KMOS Science Verification proposal. She all ESO staff within two connected build- ting involved in the use of the Galaxy naturally volunteered to participate in the ings and provide more space for hosting and Mass Assembly survey dataset. run that was her first direct experience science visitors. There is a new auditorium Claudia is steadily publishing in refereed with the VLT. Dominika is a pro-active with increased capacity for organising journals, and is also now reviewing student, being one of the representatives larger-scale conferences. The year saw a papers herself. She has been invited to for the International Max-Planck Research number of ESO-organised workshops on talk at four conferences, including a School programme, co-organising the both sites and externally, including: review talk at a Ringberg workshop, wine and cheese seminars, assisting – Astrochemistry in the ALMA Era, something quite remarkable for someone ESO’s Observing Programmes Commit- Copenhagen, Denmark, 28–31 January so young. Claudia also won an Australian tee (OPC) and organising and guiding a – Shaping E-ELT Science and Instru- Research Council Centre of Excellence one-day workshop, Journey through mentation, ESO, Garching, 25 Febru- for All-Sky Astrophysics visitor grant to Time and Space, at the second Bayer- ary–1 March visit Perth and Melbourne for a month in ischer Mädchen-Technik Kongress. – ESO Workshop on The Deaths of Stars November. She is an enthusiastic Fellow Dominika will defend her thesis in 2014 and the Lives of Galaxies, Santiago, and her passion for science is contagious. and then cross the Atlantic to join Johns Chile, 8–12 April She has been co-organising the Garching Hopkins University as a postdoc. – Science with ALMA Band 2 (65– journal clubs, and is always willing to 90 GHz), Bologna, Italy, 27–28 May contribute to the science activities at ESO – MPA/MPE/ESO/EC Joint Conference Headquarters. In order to learn about Synergy with ALMA on The Physical Link between Galaxies observations and doing submillimetre and their Halos, Garching, 24–28 June astronomy, she joined the ESO Garching Since November 2010, the ALMA – First La Serena School of Data Sci- ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) for her duty Santiago Central Office and ESO Chile ence, La Serena, Chile, 12–16 August work and started attending their weekly have both occupied the same Vitacura – ESA/ESO Science Operations 2013 meetings. Claudia was in charge of the campus. Together, there are about Conference, Working Together in ALMA Helpdesk along with Suzanna 100 astronomers, from PhD students to Support of Science, ESAC-Madrid, Randall. She performed as contact scien- Fellows and staff astronomers. This Spain, 10–13 September tist for one of the Cycle 1 top priority generates a great opportunity for collab- – ESO/NUVA/IAG Workshop on Chal- projects and also helped in the organisa- oration and cross-pollination of ideas, lenges in Ultraviolet Astronomy, ESO, tion of the ALMA community days that especially in areas related to star and Garching, 7–11 October took place in November. Claudia also planetary formation, disc structure, etc. – ESO/Observatoire de Paris Joint Work- worked on testing the ALMA Observing To harness this, the Vitacura Science shop on Metal Production and Distri- Tool and will go to the ALMA Operations Coordination team was created. On the bution in a Hierarchical Universe, Support Facility in Chile to lead several ESO side, the team comprises Claudio CNRS Observatoire de Paris Meudon, day and night shifts. Melo and Dimitri Gadotti (both staff France, 21–25 October members) and the ESO Fellows Rebeca – ALMA Community Days 2013: Pre Dominika Wylezalek spent her second Aladro, Lizette Guzman, Javier A. Rodón. paring for Cycle 2, ESO, Garching, year at ESO as a PhD student supervised On the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) 19–20 November by Carlos de Breuck and Joel Vernet. side, Masao Saito (staff) and the Fellows – ESO Workshop on Deconstructing Dominika visited Carlos’s collaborator Violette Impellizzeri and Tracey Hill are Galaxies: Structure and Morphology in Daniel Stern at JPL/Caltech for a few involved, while Aya Higuchi, a former the Era of Large Surveys, Santiago, months. This year, Dominika wrote two member of the team, has just left Chile. Chile, 18–22 November

22 ESO Annual Report 2013 – Workshop on 400 Years of Stellar Rotation, Natal, Brazil, 21–26 Novem- ber

In Garching, a very full and exciting Sci- ence Day was held on June 18, including more than 70 short talks given by ESO junior and senior astronomers (read more in Walsh et al. in the September 2013 issue of The Messenger, 153). We should also emphasise the contribution and engagement of ESO science staff in the new C2PAP Computing Centre, which emerged in the context of the new contractual period for the Excellence Cluster Universe, following the partnership between the Munich universities (TUM, LMU), the Munich Observatory, several Max Planck Institutes and ESO. This will provide unique expertise and numerical resources for researchers to conduct state-of-the-art simulations and modelling campaigns.

We would finally like to mention an initi ative at ESO to implement a development programme for Fellows. All ESO Fellows will now go through a set of training modules during their first two years including programme management, interview skills, and effective networking, all tuned to the needs of scientists. This development programme aims to assist Fellows in developing interpersonal and employability-related skills and compe- tencies, thus improving their career prospects after completion of their ESO Fellowship. The programme was launched this year and, during the next couple of years, we should be able to further optimise the modules and sessions to provide a unique training package for young astronomers.

This image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows the bright star cluster Messier 7, also known as NGC 6475.

ESO Annual Report 2013 23 Allocation of Telescope Time

The tables show the requested and The call for ALMA Cycle 2 proposals was The APEX and La Silla Paranal Observa- scheduled resources for ESO Periods 92 issued at the end of the year, resulting in tory numbers include only proposals sub- and 93 (P92, P93). These are specified almost 1400 submitted proposals. The mitted during the periods of interest. Cur- as lengths of time in nights, as is usual for ALMA Proposal Review Committee will rent Large Programme runs approved in the La Silla Paranal Observatory and meet early in 2014 and the full statistics previous periods, Guaranteed Time runs APEX. will be reported in the 2014 Annual and Public Survey runs are not included. Report. The pressure is computed as the ratio between the requested and the allocated time. The last two columns present the total telescope time allocations and the fractions per instrument. ESO/F.Kamphues

The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment islocated 5100 metres above sea level, at Llano de Chajnantor in the Atacama Desert.

24 ESO Annual Report 2013 Telescope Instrument Requested Scheduled Requested % Scheduled % Pressure Total % runs runs time time allocation

UT1 CRIRES 128 36 139 16.0 % 31 19.6 % 4.56 31 12.0 % FORS2 485 101 531 60.9 % 87 55.7 % 6.11 111 43.4% KMOS 162 39 202 23.1 % 39 24.7 % 5.23 114 44.6 % Total 775 176 872 156 5.59 255

UT2 FLAMES 121 51 147 35.8 % 82 38.8 % 1.80 141 51.8 % UVES 250 100 264 64.2 % 129 61.2 % 2.04 132 48.2 % Total 371 151 412 211 1.95 273

UT3 ISAAC 30 4 53 7.3 % 5 2.5 % 11.87 5 2.2 % VIMOS 184 38 262 35.7 % 53 29.1 % 4.93 63 30.8 % X-shooter 325 112 417 57.0 % 125 68.5% 3.33 137 67.0 % Total 539 154 732 183 4.01 204

UT4 HAWK-I 59 31 65 14.2 % 27 14.7 % 2.43 33 16.6 % NACO* 246 9 193 42.0 % 3 1.6 % 3 1.5 % SINFONI 173 135 202 43.8 % 152 83.7 % 1.32 162 81.9 % Total 478 175 460 182 2.53 197

VLTI AMBER 128 28 100 31.5 % 29 23.3 % 3.51 37 22.4 % MIDI 176 50 84 26.4% 26 21.5 % 3.18 38 23.0 % PIONIER 105 71 134 42.1 % 68 55.2 % 1.98 90 54.6 % Total 409 149 319 123 2.60 165

3.6-metre HARPS 64 39 342 100.0 % 112 100.0 % 3.05 331 100.0 % Total 64 39 342 112 3.05 331

NTT EFOSC2 89 35 365 63.8 % 129 60.1 % 2.83 185 56.0 % SOFI 49 25 208 36.2 % 86 39.9 % 2.43 146 44.0 % Total 138 60 573 215 2.67 331

APEX CHAMP+ 3 1 6 3.3 % 1 1.9 % 4.88 1 1.4 % LABOCA 15 7 22 12.0 % 13 20.7 % 1.66 25 29.7 % SABOCA 7 1 10 5.7 % 2 2.8 % 5.89 2 2.1 % SHFI 45 15 143 79.1% 47 74.6 % 3.04 57 66.8 % Total 70 24 181 63 2.87 85

* NACO was initially offered in P92, but was removed from UT4 before the start of that period. The instrument was then offered for the last two weeks of P93 at UT1. This explains the very small amount of allocated time during the reporting period. For con- venience, the instrument is listed under UT4.

ESO Annual Report 2013 25 Dawn at Cerro Armazones, site of the future Euro-

pean Extremely Large Telescope. Brunier ESO/S.

26 ESO Annual Report 2013 Publication Digest

In September 2013, the 10 000th paper VLT/VLTI La Silla Survey APEX ALMA Total was entered into the Telescope Bibli telescopes ography (telbib), the database of refereed publications that uses ESO data (http:// 1996 349 349 telbib.eso.org). This milestone was marked 1997 389 389 by an ESO announcement, highlighting 1998 405 405 the paper based on VIMOS data that 1999 29 324 348 crossed the 10k line (see Announcement ann13073: http://www.eso.org/public/ 2000 52 300 342 announcements/ann13073/). Throughout 2001 105 316 399 the year, 840 papers by members of the 2002 158 289 409 ESO user community were added to tel- 2003 260 305 512 bib. The number of papers based on data from the various observing sites as well 2004 341 319 590 as the total number per year can be found 2005 359 296 606 in the table. An overview of publication 2006 413 279 12 640 statistics is also available from a dedi cated webpage that links to the corre- 2007 494 313 1 718 sponding records in the telbib database 2008 486 287 7 687 (http://www.eso.org/sci/libraries/telbib_ 2009 471 260 15 658 pubstats_overview.html). 2010 507 273 2 27 734 Scientific results using data from the 2011 553 283 13 26 782 Very Large Telescope (VLT/VLTI) led to 2012 612 271 30 40 17 864 more than 560 papers this year. With 2013 565 273 38 43 40 840 117 refereed publications, UVES continues to be one of the most productive Refereed papers using ESO data, 1996–2013. observations obtained during “private” periods are VLT instruments. The X-shooter spectro- Papers can use data from more than one facility. not included. Survey telescopes: Papers using data graph shows a steep increase in the VLT/VLTI: Papers using data generated by the VLT generated by ESO’s survey telescope VISTA. APEX: and VLTI instruments, including visitor instruments Papers using data generated by APEX, including vis- number of publications and has produced for which observing time is recommended by the itor instruments for which observing time is recom- a total of 168 papers from 2010 to 2013. ESO Observing Programmes Committee, e.g., VLT mended by the ESO OPC, e.g., Z-Spec. Other visitor For more detailed statistics of individual ULTRACAM, VLTI PIONIER. La Silla: Papers using instruments (e.g., APEX/CONDOR) are excluded. instruments, please consult the report, data generated by facilities on La Silla, including visi- Only papers based (entirely or partly) on ESO APEX tor instruments for which observing time is recom- time are included. ALMA: Papers using data gener- Basic ESO Publication Statistics (http:// mended by the ESO OPC, e.g., NTT ULTRACAM. ated by ALMA. Only papers based (entirely or partly) www.eso.org/sci/libraries/edocs/ESO/ Papers based on data from non-ESO telescopes or on European ALMA time are included. ESOstats.pdf). 1XPEHURI(62SURJUDPPHVXVHGSHU 9/7 SDSHU LQ Over time, an increasing number of programmes per paper have been used by authors. In 1999, the first year of VLT/VLTI publications, 90% of the papers were based on a single ESO programme, while in 2013 more than half used data from at least two programmes; 3% were even based on data provided by more than ten l different programmes (see figure on the right). The ESO Science Archive continues to be an important resource for astronomers. By the end of the year, the telbib database contained more than 1300 papers that were exclusively or partly (i.e., along with proprietary data from ESO facilities) based on archival data: this corresponds to 13% of all telbib papers (1996–2013). For the VLT/VLTI, the percentage is even higher. In 2013, approximately a quarter Number of ESO programmes that provided data for of the papers made use of archival data VLT/VLTI papers 1999–2013.

ESO Annual Report 2013 27 9/79/7,SDSHUV ESO/APEX time and constitutes 55% of all APEX publications that have appeared since 2006 (171 out of 308). The telbib database also includes information about ALMA science papers. With 17 science papers published in 2012 and 40 this year, European ALMA time provided data for 67% of all ALMA papers published until the end of 2013 (57 out of 85). The ALMA bibliography is maintained jointly by the librarians at ESO and National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) as well as by the National Astro- nomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). KK5+35+3(O@ODQRTRHMFMDVNQ@QBGHU@KC@S@ While publications based on data from all /@ODQRTRHMF@MX5+35+3(@QBGHU@KC@S@HMBK C@S@OQNCTBSR ALMA partners are recorded in telbib, /@ODQRTRHMF5+35+3(C@S@OQNCTBSR only those based on European observing time are counted in the ESO statistics. Number of ESO programmes used per VLT/VLTI paper. This year, 27 scientific papers were featured in ESO press releases. The telbib (142 out of 565). In addition to raw data, other facilities for which observing time database provides direct links to the the ESO Archive also contains various is not evaluated by the ESO OPC respective press releases; likewise, sci- data products. Data products retrieved (Observing Programmes Committee) are ence press releases link back to telbib by researchers were used in 7% of all not included in the statistics. and further into the ESO Archive from VLT/VLTI publications in 2013 (40 out of where the relevant observing data can be 565; see figure above), and in 28% of VISTA, located in close proximity to the retrieved. The science press releases the VLT/VLTI papers that deploy archival VLT/VLTI, is ESO’s first telescope dedi- issued this year highlighted research from data (40 out of 142). cated to surveys. In the past year, a variety of facilities. ALMA provided 38 papers were published. Almost half of results for eight papers, followed by the Facilities located on La Silla provided them (15) deployed data from the VVV FORS2 spectrograph, HARPS, and the data for 273 papers. The HARPS planet survey, followed by papers using data LABOCA camera, which led to five press finder, mounted at the ESO 3.6-metre from the UltraVISTA (7), VIPERS (5), releases each. An overview of all instru- telescope, played a major role as 73 VIDEO (5) VMC and VHS (3 each) and ments is shown in the figure, bottom left. papers used its observational data. Also VIKING (2) surveys. older facilities such as FEROS, SOFI, The ESO user community is truly and EFOSC2 continue to provide data for The number of APEX publications had worldwide. At present, telbib contains numerous scientific papers. Non-ESO climbed above 170 by the end of the year. papers by first authors from 60 countries telescopes (for instance the Swiss This includes only scientific results from on all continents. Compared to 73 national 1.2-metre Leonhard Euler Telescope) and observations that were obtained during members in the International Astronomi-

VISIR: 1 Left: Number of papers VIRCAM: 1 WFI: 1 per instrument featured VIMOS: 1 in ESO press releases in SOFI: 1 ALMA: 8 MIDI: 1 2013. ISAAC: 1 EMMI: 1 SINFONI: 2 FORS2: 5 GIRAFFE: 2

FLAMES: 2

Z-Spec: 3 HARPS: 5

X-shooter: 3

LABOCA: 5 SABOCA: 3 Right: World map of first authors of ESO science UVES: 4 NACO: 3 data papers (dark blue).

28 ESO Annual Report 2013 cal Union, this leaves only a few white spots on the map of astronomically active countries. This wide geographic distribution shows ESO’s importance in astronomical research and its international connectedness as illustrated in the map at the bottom of the previous page.

The statistics presented here are derived from the ESO Telescope Bibliography (telbib), a database of refereed papers published by the ESO user community that links publications with the data in the ESO Science Archive. telbib is developed and maintained by the ESO Library. It is compiled by scanning articles published in the major astronomical journals (the journals routinely screened for ESO- related keywords are: A&A, A&ARv, AJ, ApJ, ApJS, AN, ARA&A, EM&P, ExA, Icar, MNRAS, Nature, NewA, NewAR, PASJ, PASP, P&SS and Science) for relevant keywords (e.g., telescope and instrument names). All papers included in the database have been inspected visually to ensure that they use ESO observational data directly. Further information about telbib and various statistics and reports can be found at http://www.eso.org/sci/ libraries/telbib_info.html.

The complete list of all 2013 papers is available at http://www.eso.org/libraries/ telbib_info/AR/ESO_AnnualReport_ publications2013.pdf. The file includes papers written by the ESO user community based on data generated by ESO facilities, followed by a separate listing of refereed publications by ESO scientists with or without use of ESO data.

Located about 1200 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Carina, the Toby Jug Nebula, more formally known as IC 2220, is an example of a reflection nebula. It is a cloud of gas and dust illuminated from within by a central star. Operations ESO/Y. Beletsky ESO/Y. La Silla Paranal Observatory

The Directorate of Operations is Operations major telescopes at La Silla. This is responsible for all science operations- equivalent to about 92% of the total related activities including the prepa The ESO Very Large Telescope at Paranal number of nights theoretically available ration and execution of observing pro- operates with four 8.2-metre Unit Tele- over the whole year. The remaining 8% grammes, the operation of the La Silla scopes, a suite of ten first generation were scheduled for planned engineering Paranal Observatory (LPO) with its instruments and two second generation and maintenance activities to guarantee La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor sites, instruments. The Laser Guide Star the continuous performance of the tele- and the delivery of raw and calibrated Facility (LGSF) provides an artificial refer- scopes and instruments and include time data. This involves user support, data ence star for two of the three adaptive- slots for the commissioning of new instru- flow management, operations techni- optics-supported instruments on the VLT. ments and facilities. Out of the available cal support and the development and The VLT Interferometer combines the science time for the VLT, 3% was lost maintenance of a science archive as light of either the UTs or the ATs to feed due to technical problems and about provided by the Data Management either one of the two interferometric first 12% due to adverse weather conditions. and Operations (DMO) Division. The generation instruments with a coherent On La Silla, bad weather accounted for Science Archive Facility holds all the wavefront, further stabilised by the VLTI losses of about 13% and technical prob- data obtained with ESO telescopes as fringe tracker or the VLTI visitor instru- lems for less than 1%. After unusually well as highly processed, advanced ment focus. VISTA, the Visible and Infra- high loss times in 2012 due to single but products derived from them. The red Survey Telescope for Astronomy, significant failures at UT4 and the NTT, directorate also provides ESO’s contri- and the VST, the VLT Survey Telescope, the technical loss times in 2013 returned bution to ALMA operations through are in regular survey operation. to the expected levels. the European ALMA Support Centre (EASC). On La Silla, the New Technology Tele- VISTA delivered 295 nights of survey scope and the 3.6-metre telescope oper- observations out of 364 scheduled nights. ate with a suite of three instruments. The The VST delivered 257 nights of survey La Silla site supports eight further nation- observations out of 347 scheduled. al telescope projects, which include, from October, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre tele- Complementary to regular VLT opera- scope. tions, the VLT Interferometer was scheduled for an additional 227 nights to The observatory provides the operations execute scientific observations using support for the Atacama Pathfinder baselines with either the UTs or the Aux Experiment with its 12-metre submillime- iliary Telescopes (ATs). The remaining tre radio antenna located on the high nights of the year have been used for plateau of Chajnantor at 5100 metres technical activities and for further devel- above sea level and its suite of hetero- opment and commissioning of the dyne and bolometer facility instruments, interferometer and its infrastructure. In together with a number of visitor instru- addition to 96 engineering nights some ments. 38 nights were invested in the continued recovery and commissioning of the For observing periods 91 and 92, the PRIMA astrometry facility. Four percent scientific community submitted respec- of the scheduled VLTI science time was tively 890 and 892 Phase 1 observing lost due to technical problems and 15% proposals for the LPO including APEX. due to bad weather. These were the lowest numbers of observing proposals received in recent The combination of high operational effi- years, but still demonstrate the continued ciency, system reliability and up-time high demand for the ESO observing of the La Silla and Paranal telescopes facilities. Some 80% of the proposals are and instruments for scientific observa- for the Paranal site with VLT, VLTI and tions has again resulted in high scientific VISTA. productivity. We have counted 565 peer- reviewed papers that have been pub- The observatory continued its efficient lished in 2013 in different scientific operation through high availability and journals that are at least partially based low technical downtime of its telescopes on data collected with VLT and VLTI Spectacular view from ESO’s La Silla Obser and instruments, which are the key ele- instruments at Paranal. In addition 38 ref- vatory in northern Chile. Above the round domes ments for productive scientific observa- ereed papers were published referring to of the telescopes, three of the planets in the tions. In 2013 a total of 2281 nights were observations with VISTA and the VST at Solar System — Jupiter (top), Venus (lower left), and Mercury (lower right) — are revealed after scheduled for scientific observations with Paranal and 273 referring to ESO-operat- sunset. the four UTs at the VLT and with the three ed telescopes at La Silla. Seventy-four

ESO Annual Report 2013 31 papers were based on APEX observations, out of which 43 used observations during the 24% share of ESO time. Since the start of operations in 1999 the VLT and VLTI have produced a total of 5405 publications, a number that is increasing by about a dozen every week. Interest- ingly, the veteran workhorse instruments UVES and FORS2 — both commissioned (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO G.Hüdepohl at the start of the VLT operation — still lead the publication statistics of all ESO instruments in 2013 with 117 and 101 publications, respectively. They are followed by VIMOS with 75 publications and the second generation instrument X-shooter with 70 publications in its fourth year of operation.

Paranal Observatory

Instrumentation The new PARLA laser in operation at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. The observatory has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the second generation thermal background in the K-band. delivered — in a reduced power mode — VLT instruments KMOS, MUSE, and Each integral field unit has a square field 7 watts of laser power into Paranal’s sky, SPHERE after a gap of several years of view of 2.8 × 2.8 arcseconds; anamor- generating an artificial star about 90 kilo- since the arrival of X-shooter. phic magnification in the integral field metres up in the atmosphere. By creating units fore-optics ensures uniform spatial and observing such a bright point of light, The K-band Multi Object Spectrograph sampling of 0.2 × 0.2 arcseconds whilst astronomers can probe the turbulence (KMOS) was the first of the trio to arrive at maintaining Nyquist sampling (~ 2 pixel) in the layers of the atmosphere above the the telescope in late 2012 and was suc- of the spectral resolution element at telescope. This information is then used cessfully commissioned early this year. the detector. The use of focal-plane pick- to adjust deformable mirrors in real time After its full characterisation and integra- off arms allows considerable flexibility in order to correct most of the distur- tion into the VLT end-to-end operation in selecting targets and, in particular, bance caused by the constant movement scheme, the new instrument entered reg- dealing with the strongly clustered or of the atmosphere and so create diffrac- ular science operation on 1 October. close-paired sources often found in clus- tion-limited images. The key capability of KMOS is to perform ters of stars or galaxies. integral field spectroscopy in the near- In the same month that KMOS com- infrared wavelength bands for 24 scien Shortly after KMOS had left the new inte- menced science operation, the prepara- tific targets simultaneously. For this the gration hall it was immediately reoccu- tions for the arrival of the Multi-Unit instrument design employs 24 configur- pied by the next project: PARLA, the new Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) to the able arms that position pick-off mirrors at laser source for the LGSF at Yepun (UT4). Yepun (UT4) telescope started with the user-specified locations in the Nasmyth It replaces the original PARSEC laser removal of the NACO instrument from the focal plane of the Antu (UT1) telescope of after its six years of operation and PARLA designated UT4 Nasmyth focus. Despite the VLT. The sub-fields thus selected are has already demonstrated a greatly its advanced age, and in a departure then fed to 24 image slicer integral field improved reliability and flexibility in oper- from the original plan to decommission units that partition each sub-field into ating the LGSF with the NACO and NACO at the time of arrival of MUSE, 14 identical slices, with 14 spatial pixels SINFONI adaptive optics instruments. It NACO was stored after its removal from along each slice. Light from the integral takes advantage of the new solid-state the telescope and will be re-installed at field units is then dispersed by three cry- Raman fibre laser technology that will UT1 in mid-2014 in place of CRIRES. ogenic grating spectrometers that gener- also be employed in the Four-Laser CRIRES itself will undergo a major ate 14 × 14 spectra with some 1000 Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) of the Adap- upgrade to be converted into a cross- Nyquist-sampled spectral resolution ele- tive Optics Facility (AOF). The new laser dispersed high-resolution infrared spec- ments for each of the 24 independent source delivers up to 20 watts of con trograph. Once NACO was dismounted, sub-fields. The patrol field of the pickoffs tinuous output power and is very stable. the modifications of the adaptor/rotator is 7.2 arcminutes in diameter, which is the PARLA was successfully installed and to increase the back focal length of the diameter of the unvignetted field at the commissioned at UT4 in January and Nasmyth focal station could be initiated. VLT Nasmyth focus, thus minimising the February and since then has reliably MUSE and its future adaptive optics

32 ESO Annual Report 2013 module GALACSI require an increased spacing between the telescope-instrument rotator and the focal plane of the telescope to accommodate the necessary additional optics. While it is easy to shift the focal plane of the telescope by slightly moving its secondary mirror, the telescope’s guiding system required a major opto-mechanical modification to absorb the additional optical path length inside the guide probe arm of the telescope. Commissioning the modified Roux/Service Communication/UCBL/MUSE Le Eric Nasmyth focus meant, in practice, re- commissioning the telescope according to the procedures established some 15 years ago during the initial VLT commissioning. The back focal length commissioning confirmed that the modification was successful and that the MUSE Nasmyth adaptor with its increased back focal length performs as well as any other focal station.

The assembly, integration and verification MUSE is a new and uniquely powerful instrument activities of the MUSE instrument itself to be installed at ESO’s Very Large Telescope UT4 (Yepun). started in Chile with the arrival of the first 48 boxes bringing the disassembled instrument to Paranal. Shortly afterwards, ticular, the delta-call for proposals for Telescope systems the MUSE team started to re-assemble ISAAC in observing period 91 attracted this complex instrument, with its 24 inte- the attention of the ISAAC community The VLT Unit Telescopes continue to gral field units and spectrographs, in the with 153 proposals submitted, requesting be extremely reliable systems, despite new instrument integration hall at a total of 2500 hours of observing time. the fact that some of them are already Paranal. By the end of the year the MUSE From these, 800 hours of UT3 telescope approaching 15 years of continuous team had successfully completed this time, which had become available due operation. A dedicated obsolescence task and prepared the instrument for its to the delays with the upgrade of the programme has been initiated this year transfer to the UT4 telescope in early VISIR instrument, were easily filled and to ensure the continued high availability January 2014 for subsequent first light made many PIs and the observatory and maintainability of the telescopes and and commissioning. happy. It was possibly this unplanned their subsystems for the years to come. consolation that helped the ISAAC com- This year, the biggest losses in observing While MUSE was being prepared for its munity to accept the decommissioning time related to the telescope systems move to the telescope in December, of their instrument so valiantly and quietly. were caused by major failures of the rota- the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast tion mechanisms of the UT4 and UT1 Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) passed Knowing that ISAAC would have to be enclosures, which led in total to a loss of its provisional acceptance in Europe and decommissioned in December to make more than ten nights of observing time. is expected to arrive in boxes at Paranal room for SPHERE, and having realised While the damaged bogie in UT4 could early in 2014, just as MUSE has been that VISIR would not be ready to come be repaired in situ, the failing bogie in cleared from the new integration hall. back to the UT3 telescope in period 92, UT1 had to be dismounted for a full over- an opportunity to provide the heavily overhaul in the Paranal workshop. The UT3 focal station designated for subscribed X-shooter instrument with SPHERE was still occupied by ISAAC. more observing time was recognised. The 8-metre coating unit remained a On 12 December, ISAAC was switched In October, X-shooter was transferred major source of concern for the obser off and became, after FORS1, the second from the Cassegrain focus of UT2 to the vatory. Despite intensive internal efforts first generation VLT instrument to be Cassegrain focus of UT3 where it currently to track down the root causes of the decommissioned. ISAAC has been one only competes with VIMOS. X-shooter is degraded quality of the aluminium coat- of the most productive of the VLT instru- expected to return to UT2 once SPHERE ings produced on the VLT mirrors, no ments and has contributed to some goes into regular operation, VIMOS starts stable and reproducible coating process 846 refereed scientific publications over the envisioned large public spectroscopic could be re-established this year. Conse- its operational lifetime from 1999 to 2013 surveys, and the upgraded VISIR is ready quently, the observatory has been seek- — and these will not be the last. In par- to go on-sky again. ing external help through a consultancy

ESO Annual Report 2013 33 with a consortium of Danish companies La Silla Observatory APEX, out of which 194 could actually be specialising in large vacuum and coating used, with close to 4000 hours of on-sky machines. This collaboration has now La Silla Observatory continued to operate science time. shown the first positive results and, successfully according to the streamlined despite some initial setbacks, we are con- operations model. This La Silla 2010+ This number is close to what was fident that a full recovery plan can be model supports the continued operations achieved in the year before, despite the established and implemented in the com- of the three major telescopes and their fact that the 2013 APEX science operation ing year, followed by a new and tailored instrumentation, i.e., the 3.6-metre tele- was severely affected by five snowstorms preventive maintenance plan for the future. scope with HARPS; the NTT with SOFI, that led to a total loss of about 22 days EFOSC2 and visitor instruments; and the of observing time. In particular, the second MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope with half of June was lost for science observa- Infrastructure FEROS and WFI. tions due to several severe snowstorms. The high site infrastructure and the power Paranal Observatory critically relies on The MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope generation in particular withstood the first the production of its own electrical ener- operated according to an agreement with snowstorm over a period of three days gy in so-called island mode, i.e., without the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy without breakdowns. Unfortunately the connection to any national electrical dis- (MPIA, Heidelberg, Germany). This agree- second storm caused a failure at the tribution grid. For several years the core ment ensured the continued operation powerhouse. The high site could not be of this energy production system has of the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope reached for several days. Therefore, the been a multi-fuel power generator until the end of September 2013 with an power could only be reinstated after the backed up by a set of diesel generators. ESO share of 25% of the available antenna, the instruments and the control This year the generator provided the observing time in response to the contin- buildings had already reached the local observatory with 10 GWh of energy using ued requests by the community for the environmental temperatures, causing some 6.5 million litres of liquefied petro FEROS and WFI instruments. As of Octo- additional delays to the start of the sci- leum gas (LPG), more specifically, cata- ber, ESO’s operation of the MPG/ESO ence operation. With a huge effort by the lytic butane gas. To ensure that the gen- 2.2-metre telescope ceased, but the tele- APEX staff, as well as the visiting ArTeMiS erator continued to operate reliably a scope continues to be operated by the team, it was possible to thaw the power- scheduled overhaul was carried out this MPIA as an ESO-supported national tele- house and recover the power within two year after five years of quasi-continuous scope. All scientific data produced by the days. The first observations with the tech- operation. Part of this major maintenance MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope with the nical optical telescope could be performed activity was the replacement of the heart WFI, FEROS, and GROND instruments after just one day and after only one fur- of the generator, the turbine itself. The continue to be ingested into the ESO Sci- ther day, science operations started again turbine was successfully replaced by a ence Archive and become available to the with the recovered facility instruments. spare and sent for refurbishment to the community after programme-specific provider. The overhaul provided, in addi- proprietary periods. The personnel strike at ALMA restricted tion, the opportunity to test the generator access to the APEX site at Chajnantor with LPG based on propane as the pri- In addition the La Silla Observatory con- and resulted in an additional loss of mary fuel. This test was successful and tinues to support scientific projects at 94 hours of science time. gives the observatory some additional other national telescopes, i.e., the Danish flexibility to react to the quickly changing 1.54-metre, the Swiss 1.2-metre The APEX project is a partnership availability of butane and propane gas on Leonhard Euler Telescope, the Rapid Eye between the Max Planck Institute for the Chilean market. Mount, TAROT-S, the 1-metre ESO Radio Astronomy (MPIfR, Bonn, Germany, Schmidt, TRAPPIST and the ESO 1-metre 50% share), ESO (27% share) and the The successful maintenance of the gen- telescopes. Onsala Space Observatory (OSO, erator was rewarded by a run of 1000 Sweden, 23% share). Considering the days and nights without an unplanned continued success of the project, the power blackout: a record that was quietly APEX project APEX partners had recently extended celebrated by the observatory. But only their agreement to 31 December 2015 two weeks later, on 7 August and after The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment con- with a provision for a further extension 1016 days, the unavoidable blackout tinued to operate its 12-metre antenna until the end of 2017 “if the performance occurred due to the failure of a critical and its suite of heterodyne and bolometer of APEX is positively reviewed two years programmable logic controller (PLC) in facility instruments and visitor instru- before the expiration of this Agreement”. the control system of the power station. ments. This is done in a quasi-continuous The APEX project held a corresponding Analysis of the root cause of the failure 24-hour operation mode that maximises external review at APEX Sequitor in allowed additional improvements for the the exploitation of the exceptional condi- February and the review board “[…] reliability and robustness of the power tions available at the site of Chajnantor strongly recommends to extend the cur- system to be identified and implemented. at 5100 metres above sea level. This year rent APEX agreement through 2017, The days-without-blackout counter is a total of 237 days and nights were and to keep open the option to extend its now running again. scheduled for science observations with operation until at least the end of this

34 ESO Annual Report 2013 decade”. Considering this positive rec- ArTeMiS instrument ommendation, the APEX partners con- installed in the Cassegrain cabin of the firmed during the year their shared desire APEX telescope. to maximise the scientific returns on their investments in APEX and to seek an team/ESO ArTeMiS extension to the APEX Agreement until 31 December 2017. It is expected that the corresponding agreement will be signed in early 2014.

The competitiveness of APEX in the era of a fully operational ALMA depends strongly on its survey capabilities and therefore on the results of the ongoing receiver developments at the APEX partners, in particular in the area of large-sized continuum cameras with several thousand detector elements. The first commissioning of one of these new instruments, called ArTeMiS (Architectures de bolomètres pour des Télescopes à grand champ de vue dans le domaine sub-Millimétrique au Sol — Bolometer arrays for wide-field submilli metre ground-based telescopes) has been an important step in this direction. ArTeMiS is a bolometric camera built by the Commissariat à L’Energie Atomique (CEA in Saclay, France) and designed for operations in the Cassegrain cabin of APEX. It operates at three wavelengths (450, 350 and 200 μm) simultaneously. Its 4608 pixels provide fully sampled images covering 4 × 2 arcminutes at 350 and 450 μm, with an additional 1152 pixels covering 2 × 1 arcminutes at 200 μm. The camera uses the technology of the Photo- detector Array Camera & Spectrometer onboard the Herschel spacecraft, a technology developed at the CEA. During the first commissioning the focal plane was only partially populated with a subset of detectors, but the instrument was already outperforming the 32-pixel SABOCA facility instrument at APEX. To make this exciting new instrument available to its community, ESO has started negotiations with the CEA about the terms of such an agreement. It is expected that proposals for the fully commissioned ArTeMiS

instrument will be accepted for the second team/Ph.ArTeMiS André, M. Hennemann, Revéret V. et al./ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit half of 2014.

First ArTeMiS science observations of NGC 6334 (The Cat’s Paw Nebula). The picture shows the glow detected at a wavelength of 350 μm coming from dense clouds of interstellar dust grains. The new observations from ArTeMiS show up in orange and have been superimposed on a view of the same region taken in near-infrared light by ESO’s VISTA telescope at Paranal.

ESO Annual Report 2013 35 ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org) The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment at Chajnantor, in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Data Management and Operations Division

The Data Management and Operations according to a variety of search criteria, HD 163296, a five-Myr-old Herbig Ae star Division is responsible for off-site opera- such as object name or position, fre- at a distance of 122 pc. tions and user support for the La Silla quency or spectral resolution, project ID Paranal Observatory and the European or PI name and many more. An archive These channel velocity maps unveil, for segment of ALMA. The DMO ensures query returns a results table that allows the first time at submillimetre wavelengths, that existing and future ESO facilities can users to identify and sort observations details of vertical structure, revealing both be exploited efficiently, based on an inte- matching their search criteria and to the back and the front side of a flared grated end-to-end operations approach. select one or more datasets for down- disc in Keplerian rotation (de Gregorio- load. Monsalvo et al. 2013, A&A, 557, 133).

European ALMA Regional Centre The number of peer-reviewed publica- A parallel activity of the ARC department tions presenting results obtained with is user support to ESO astronomers Now well into Early Science operations, ALMA data is rapidly increasing. Out of requesting observations with the APEX which began in September 2011, the the 65 peer-reviewed ALMA articles facility. During the year, the APEX sup- European ALMA Regional Centre contin- published this year, 20 came from ALMA port group in Garching provided exten- ued to support all European Principal projects led by European PIs, while sive input to the APEX external review Investigator ALMA projects in 2013, from another 20 were made possible thanks to in February, which recommended the the technical preparation of their projects Science Verification data, released in APEX agreement be extended up to the — split into Scheduling Blocks, their exe- 2012. To date, about half of all ALMA end of 2017. This extension was cution and quality assurance, through to peer-reviewed publications report discov- approved by Council in December. In data delivery and post-delivery quality eries on topics within the Star Formation particular, the collected statistics show control. The ARC also continued to run and Interstellar Medium category. This that the ESO APEX user community is the ALMA Helpdesk, through which all category also received the largest num- very broad, consisting of 1400 individual communications with ALMA users take ber of requests for ALMA observing time scientists. Another development this place. In February, and with an ever- in Cycle 0. An example of these results is year was the installation of the ArTeMiS increasing data acquisition rate, the shown in the figure below, which reports camera at APEX (see p. 35), which will ALMA project passed yet another mile- the spectral channels of the CO(3–2) line now be offered to the ESO community as stone, as the ALMA Archive opened to emission from a circumstellar disc around a replacement for SABOCA. users from all over the world.

HD 163296 ALMA CO(3–2) The data produced during ALMA observations, along with their calibrations, are stored in the ALMA Archive, where this 1 year alone, 26.7 terabytes of data were 3.19 km/s 3.40 km/s 3.61 km/s 3.82 km/s 4.03 km/s ingested. In the same period, a total of 24 Cycle 0 and 22 Cycle 1 deliveries of Scheduling Blocks to European PIs were 0.8 carried out, corresponding to 17 Cycle 0 and 15 Cycle 1 unique European pro- 4.24 km/s 4.45 km/s 4.66 km/s 4.87 km/s 5.08 km/s jects, respectively. The quality assurance 0.6

for more than 80% of these deliveries Jy was carried out by the European ARC /bea and ARC node staff. m)

5.29 km/s 5.50 km/s 5.71 km/s 5.92 km/s 6.13 km/s A notable feature of the archive is data 0.4 delegation, which allows PIs to give access to their proprietary datasets to one or more registered ALMA users without having to give them their creden- 0.2 6.34 km/s 6.55 km/s 6.76 km/s 6.97 km/s 7.18 km/s tials. All ALMA scientific datasets are –21:57:18 subject to a proprietary period of twelve ) 00 months from the date that they are deliv- 20 22 (J 0 on

ered to the PI, at the end of which period ti they become publicly available. Since 26 7.39 km/s 7.60 km/s 7.81 km/s 8.02 km/s 8.23 km/s the opening of the archive it has been Declina –17:56:21.721.4 21.1 possible to query both public and propri- Right Ascension (J2000) etary data through the archive interface, ALMA Science Verification data showing a CO(3–2) emission line towards the circumstellar disc around HD 163296.

38 ESO Annual Report 2013 The User Support Department The department is also involved develop- Last but not least, the User Support ing projects, and so interacts with the Department is responsible for the organi- The User Support Department provides user community at large on broad opera- sation of the annual Users Committee support to users of ESO facilities and to tional topics. During the past year, the meeting (see the Committees section of the operations teams of the LPO. In its department has continued working, for this report). During this forum — usually day-to-day operations the department’s both ESO and its community, towards occurring in April — ESO representatives astronomers support, review and opti- standardising of the operational metrics from various operational units meet with mise the preparation of observing materi- that have been identified as the most representatives of the users in all ESO al (also known as Phase 2 material) sub- reliable, and offering informative health Member States and Chile to openly and mitted by authors of accepted Service and efficiency checks. Furthermore, the constructively discuss their respective Mode programmes. This is to ensure online travel form for visiting astronomers communities’ feedback. Users are gener- compliance with Service Mode policies was completely revamped as part of the ally satisfied with the services that ESO and to check the efficiency and adequacy upgrade of the visiting astronomer travel offers (see the figure below) and ESO is of the proposed strategy for achieving the tools and released to the community in eager to receive suggestions for further scientific goals. For Visitor Mode users, August. The new form takes advantage of improvements. the department provides travel and logis- the information stored in our operational tic (organisational) support via its visiting databases such as the User Portal and astronomer travel office. the observation schedule. It relies on a Back-end Operations Department three-step process, validating the incom- This year, the ISAAC delta call, issued ing data, and delivering the travel request Data products during Period 90 in order to exploit the directly to the visiting astronomer travel cancellation of some commissioning office. The Data Processing and Quality Control slots, represented a deviation from the group works closely with the Paranal standard modus operandi. On a very Regarding meetings, the highlight of Science Operations department to short timescale, it required the support the year was the co-organisation of the ensure that all instruments always per- of 83 new Service Mode runs (~ 20% ESA/ESO Science Operations 2013 form within the expected and published increase), totalling more than 700 hours conference, held at the European Space ranges. Taking advantage of a fast data of telescope time. The smooth entry into Astronomy Centre (ESAC, Madrid) in transfer link and dedicated data-process- operation of the new KMOS spectro- September. The meeting brought togeth- ing and analysis tools, the quality control graph was also achieved thanks to the er ground- and space-based communi- loop between Paranal and Garching is dedication of support astronomers within ties working in science operations and routinely closed on a timescale of about the department, who played a major role was very well attended (150 participants). one hour. During this year the group pro- in the implementation and execution of The programme covered all operational cessed about 8.5 TB of VLT/VLTI raw the Science Verification observations pro- aspects, from project initiation, instru- data in almost 150 000 processing jobs. posed by the community. ment design/review to Phase 1/2/3, In addition, 23 TB of data from the survey observing strategy, community support, telescopes VISTA and the VST were pro- The department continuously hones the calibration, archive and data legacy. A cessed to monitor the instrument perfor- optimisation of its services to its main detailed report of the content of the mance and data quality. This is almost customers. In this respect we have im meeting was published in the December three times as much as the entire suite of proved the retrieval of observing informa- issue of The Messenger (No. 154 http:// all VLT/I instruments. tion (e.g., night logs) for our users. The www.eso.org/public/products/messen- Garching version of the Night Log Tool gers/Messenger_0154/). (gNLT) now allows both Service and Visitor Mode PIs, as well as data/Phase 2 delegates, to request on-the-fly generation of 100% a PDF night report for a specific observ- 90% ing night or a range of nights. This PDF 80% night report has the same content as the night reports that users receive if they 70% are subscribed to the e-mail service. The 60% Excellent new gNLT release included some im 50% provements for the access to the raw Good 40% Fair data in the ESO Archive, directly from the The main outcome of 30% run progress pages. The web interface Poor the Service Mode feed- to request Programme Change Requests 20% back campaign of 2013. (related to either a target or an instru- Represented here are 10% the results in the areas ment set-up) was also modified so that for which the User Sup- Phase 2 delegates can now submit 0% Overall Service Phase 2 Phase 2 Post–Phase 2 port Department is change requests on behalf of the PI. Mode Process Support Review Support principally responsible.

ESO Annual Report 2013 39 Complying with ESO policy, advanced organise and associate the input data, science data products from Public Sur- as well as to interact with the data and to veys and Large Programmes are being incorporate custom tools written in the returned to the Science Archive Facility popular python language. by the respective PIs for the community at large to exploit. The Archive Science group has developed, in close collabora- Science Archive Facility tion with the Directorate of Engineering, a set of standardised procedures and The Science Archive Facility is the single tools to streamline this process, dubbed distribution point for all ESO data. This Phase 3 by analogy with the submission includes access to proprietary data for of observing proposals (Phase 1) and the both Visitor and Service Mode runs, a specification of the detailed observing process that is limited to the correspond- strategies (Phase 2). In addition to imaging PIs and their authorised delegates es, spectra, etc., the Phase 3 infrastruc- for the duration of the proprietary period ture also seamlessly handles source cat- (typically one year). The time delay alogues that are, arguably, the ultimate between the execution of an observation data product from the Public Surveys. at the telescope and the moment at This year marked two major milestones which the corresponding files become for ESO’s Science Archive Facility with available for download through the Sci- respect to data products. The first was ence Archive Facility was further reduced that all of the eleven Public Surveys cur- to a fraction of an hour. Several time-criti- rently running have provided high quality cal programmes benefitted from this, advanced data products for publication enabling them to fulfil their science goals. to our community. This event was marked by a dedicated section in the December Following the addition of more than 2013 issue of The Messenger, with contri- 80 TB (in 4.5 million files) of new data this butions from ESO and the survey teams, year, the total archive holdings now as well as archive users using the data approach the 400 TB mark. Close to products for their own science. Secondly, 33 000 archive data requests were made we started the massive publication pro- in the year (four million files), either cess for data products generated in- accessing the web interfaces or pro- house through the Science Archive Facili- grammatically. These correspond to the ty by running the corresponding data activities of more than 2100 unique reduction pipelines on both the incoming archive users. raw data stream and historical data (reprocessing). These are accessible This year, the Science Archive Facility through the same interfaces as the Public remained a strong contributor to ESO’s Survey and Large Programme data prod- scientific output as measured by the ucts, providing a seamless user experi- number of refereed publications. In fact, ence directed towards answering a user’s a quarter of the refereed papers pub- scientific questions. We started by published in the year from the VLT/I used lishing about 100 000 UVES spectra with exclusively or partly (i.e., in combination more instruments to follow during the with new ESO observations) data course of 2014. retrieved from the ESO Archive (more details are given in the Publication Digest ESO’s continuing efforts to improve the on p. 27). scientific quality of the data products are coordinated by the Science Data Prod- ucts group. Support for user data reduction was enhanced by releasing Reflex workflows for SINFONI, a VLT first generation instrument that is much in demand, and the newly operational KMOS. Sup- port for KMOS was also seamlessly introduced in the quality control loop and Sci- ence Archive Facility. In addition to the capability to run the data reduction modules, Reflex provides the capability to Computer room at the Paranal control building.

40 ESO Annual Report 2013 ESO Annual Report 2013 41 European ALMA Support Centre

The European ALMA Support Centre is ESO’s operations unit for ALMA and 100 μm comprises the ALMA Regional Centre, 0.5 200 μm 300 μm ALMA offsite technical maintenance and 500 μm development support, and ALMA science 0.4 and outreach. The high-level scientific representation and scientific guidance of 0.3 the European ALMA project will continue ansmission

to be provided in the operations phase Tr 0.2 by the European Programme Scientist, who acts in close collaboration with the VLT and E-ELT Programme Scientists to 0.1 exploit the scientific synergies with ESO’s other major programmes. EASC is the 0.0 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 face of ALMA for the European scientific Frequency (GHz) community and the international ALMA partners for ALMA operations. It is an Computed atmospheric transparency in the 1– different values of precipitable water vapour as important component for the success of 1.6 THz range at Chajnantor under excellent weather labelled (Rigopoulou et al. 2013, The Messenger, conditions. The different curves are computed for 153, 35). ALMA, both for its performance as a scientific instrument and for ESO as a partner in the ALMA project. During 2013, 0.015 ALMA Band 2 L1544 (T = 10 K) EASC played an increasingly significant ALMA Band 2+3

) ALMA Band 4 0.01 ALMA Band 6 role in ALMA operations. (K

mb T For the scientific user community, the 0.005 central ARC at ESO Garching and the 0 ARC nodes in Europe are the primary 60000 80000 100000120000140000160000180000 200000 220000 240000 interfaces for individual ALMA users. The Frequency (MHz) share of core and additional functions Predicted spectrum for glycine, the simplest amino tracts with specialised institutes in between the central ARC and the ARC acid, emission in the low-mass core L1544, and the Europe to ensure hardware maintenance frequency coverage of some of the ALMA bands are nodes is detailed in the ARC node imple- shown (Jimenez-Serra et al., 2014). requiring specific, special skills. mentation plan. This year, the European ALMA Regional Centre has been of are the archive, common software infra The ALMA partnership foresees continu- important for the success of Early Sci- structure, applications for the full lifecycle ous upgrades and the development of ence Cycle 0 and 1 observations and of observing projects, and telescope new software, front ends (e.g., additional high quality data delivery. In addition, calibration, as well as major contributions receiver bands) and other hardware or intensive preparations for Early Science to pipeline heuristics and Common system capabilities during the operations Cycle 2, scheduled to start in June 2014, Astronomy Software Applications (CASA) phase. In June the second call for ALMA were carried out. More details regarding development. The European ALMA upgrade studies in the ESO Member the ARC are given in the DMO section Support Centre leads the European Inte- States was issued. Following an enthusi- starting on p. 38. grated Computing Team with support astic response, the proposals were from the ESO Directorate of Engineering, reviewed and the overall scientific strate- At the beginning of the year, ALMA Com- the UK Astronomy Technology Centre gy discussed with the European ALMA puting became part of operations with (UK ATC) in Edinburgh, Institut de radio- Science Advisory Committee (ESAC) and the implementation of a partnership-wide astronomie millimétrique in Grenoble, the the Scientific Technical Committee (STC) integrated team for the operations phase. Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy to set up the study programme for the The ALMA Integrated Computing Team in Bonn and the Observatoire de Paris. years 2014–2016. The final studies, from is responsible for developing, maintaining the previous 2011–2013 cycle, are and supporting all the software for the The EASC technical team is responsible approaching their conclusions: the stud- ALMA Observatory and its regional cen- for off-site technical support and hard- ies on the scientific opportunities and tres. The team is composed of four ware development projects. This year the observing conditions for supra-THz inter- similarly-sized teams in Europe, North first ALMA development project started: ferometry with ALMA and the develop- America, East Asia and the Joint ALMA building Band 5 receivers for all 66 ALMA ment of the science case and critical Observatory in Chile. Each partner antennas. This was carried out by a Euro- components design for the ALMA Band supports, maintains and extends the pean consortium with a hardware contri- 2/3. A workshop to discuss the science parts of the ALMA software they devel- bution from NRAO. The technical team possibilities with ALMA equipped with oped and delivered during the construc- also provided specific knowledge and Band 11 was held in Oxford in March (see tion period. The European Integrated assistance to the ALMA Observatory and Rigopoulou et al. 2013, The Messenger, Computing Team’s main responsibilities negotiated the first maintenance con- 153, 35). While observing beyond 1 THz

42 ESO Annual Report 2013 with ALMA will be challenging (see the figure at the top of the previous page), unique science possibilities were identified. The exciting scientific opportunities that will be available with ALMA Band 2/3 were discussed at a workshop in Bolo- gna in May. High-redshift extragalactic spectral surveys and the study of complex deuterated and pre-biotic molecules in star-forming regions were identified as the most prominent cases (see the lower figure on the previous page). The ALMA upgrade studies, including those carried out in the other ALMA regions, will inform the overall ALMA Development Plan upgrade strategy that is being developed by a dedicated working group set up by the ALMA Development Plan Steering Committee with members coming from the ALMA Science Advisory Committee and the three regional ALMA Programme Scientists.

The ongoing ALMA upgrade projects made significant progress during the year. The Band 5 project, carried out by a European consortium of The Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) and the Group for Advanced Receiver Development, has made significant progress towards setting up the full production line for the 67 receivers. The optical fibre project, led by JAO with strong contributions from NRAO and ESO, will provide a fast network connection between the ALMA Observatory and Santiago and will soon allow reliable high-speed data transfer to the Santiago office. The ALMA Phasing Project, led by the Massachu- setts Institute of Technology and involving contributions from all ALMA partner regions, made a lot of progress and the first hardware and software deliverables are on track for installation and commissioning in 2014. This project aims to enable ALMA to become a station of a worldwide millimetre very long baseline interferometry network and, more gener- ally, operate as a phased array. The Band 1 receiver project, led by ASIAA, the East Asia Front End Integration Cen- tre with contributions from North America and Chile, passed initial reviews in which ESO was involved and will go through a final assessment in the course of 2014.

European antenna at the ALMA Operations Support

Facility. Duro Adhemar ESO/C. PontoniALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO),

ESO Annual Report 2013 43 Programmes ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org) Tafreshi ESO/B. Instrumentation for the La Silla Paranal Observatory

This year, all the ESO programmes are KMOS commissioning and operations integration phase and passed through being executed within the new matrix- the Provisional Acceptance Europe (PAE) based organisational structure. ALMA The on-sky commissioning of KMOS process, culminating with its accept- construction is now substantially com- continued this year. After commissioning ance in September. When commissioned, plete with the delivery of the last Euro- was successfully concluded in March, the instrument will provide a massive pean antenna in September. The proposals were solicited for two public 1 × 1 arcminute field of view, with each remaining construction deliverable is Science Verification runs that were held in 0.2 arcsecond pixel giving a complete the ALMA Residence, for which the June and September. In parallel with the spectrum, and hence 90 000 spectra tendering process is underway. In preparations for Science Verification, the obtained in a single shot. MUSE was December, the Director General instrument was offered to the community, packed and shipped to Chile (in three signed the contract with ICAFAL Inge- starting on 1 October. The response to consignments: 58 crates, 28 tonnes of niería y Construcción S.A. for the the first full call for KMOS proposals was material), where it was successfully re- E-ELT road to Cerro Armazones and extremely strong, immediately making it assembled in the new, refurbished inte- the levelling of the top of the mountain one of the most oversubscribed instru- gration hall at Paranal. In order to host in readiness for the construction activi- ments at the VLT. Formal preliminary MUSE and its AO module GALACSI, ties. Roberto Tamai has been appoint- acceptance in Chile has been postponed UT4 has been modified to include a new ed by Council as the new E-ELT Pro- to 2014 because one long-term action guiding arm that provides the additional gramme Manager and will take over in item, related to the reduction of induced 25 centimetres of back focal distance early 2014. The second generation vibrations for VLTI operations, will only be needed. MUSE will be transported from VLT/I instrumentation continues to pro- completed at the beginning of next year. the integration hall to UT4 in January and gress well with the delivery and suc- Before the start of the open-time propos- its commissioning is expected to start in cessful reintegration of MUSE on als in October, problems with one of the February 2014. Paranal being the highlight of the year. pick-off arms were addressed, and it was replaced by a spare. The reason for the This year SPHERE (PI: Beuzit, IPAG- failure of the mechanism is under careful Grenoble) also went through a thorough study by the KMOS team. Science Verifi- and successful PAE process in Grenoble. cation resulted in the appearance of the PAE was granted at the end of the year, first refereed paper from KMOS data in with a delay of a few months with respect the scientific literature (Sobral et al. 2013, to the schedule planned a year ago. The ApJ, 779,139). The paper addresses one instrument delivers very good image of the core science cases that drove the quality, with Strehl ratios reaching 90% in unique KMOS design, namely the char- the H-band in good (0.65-arcsecond) acterisation of the dynamics of clusters at simulated seeing, despite the loss of moderate redshift. functionality of some actuators in the high-order deformable mirror during summer testing. Another problem is that the Instruments approved or under deformable mirror changes its shape construction at rest with temperature, requiring retrofit- ting of an actively controlled mirror in the The integral field units spectrograph optical path. The contract for the produc- MUSE (PI: Bacon, Lyon) has finished its tion of a second deformable mirror had to

Field splitting optics for MUSE. Shown following successful manufacture at the premises of Winlight Optics (France). One of the VLT Auxiliary Telescopes These optics re-format set against the splendour of the the field before it enters southern Milky Way. the spectrographs.

ESO Annual Report 2013 45 100.0 V-band (grey splitter) B10.7 observed PSF 90.0 10 R-band diff limited PSF -band) h) H

80.0 (dichro splitter) /1 σ om I-band 0

fr 70.0 /1

d (grey splitter) Jy te 60.0 sky noise J-band (mirror) (m

50.0 ty

rapola H-band (mirror) xt 40.0 K-band (mirror) BLIP (0.5ǥ) o (e

30.0 sensitivi

rati Spec – goal for faint case in H-band 1 20.0 BLIP (diff limited)

Strehl 10.0 Conditions: ox 0.85ǥ seeing 0.1 1.0 10.0

ppr 0.0 12 m/s wind speed M2 chop frequency ν (Hz) A 4.06.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 16.0 R magnitude This figure shows the performance of the new AQUARIUS mid-infrared detector. The observed Laboratory test results for the SPHERE instrument the analysis of the impact of excess sensitivity (squares) improves with chop frequency show the Strehl ratio (optical performance compared detector noise, a problem with the new as predicted (dashed line). At sufficient chop fre- to the diffraction limit) as a function of the R-magni- AQUARIUS detector. This is expected quencies the noise becomes background photon tude of the guide star. The H-band performance was noise limited (BLIP). actually measured, while other wavelengths have been to be lower than the fundamental noise, calculated using normal atmospheric scaling terms. and there is no sign of any spatio- temporal correlated noise, so the impact test bench. These were completed in July be cancelled because of failure in some should be minimal. Tests will be per- and validated the main optical specifica- manufacturing steps. A new inquiry for a formed to confirm these expectations. tions for the DSM. The final milestone potential spare deformable mirror has (PAE) for the DSM acceptance took place been issued. The ESPRESSO ultra-stable high-resolu- in December. SAFRAN-REOSC also tion optical spectrograph (PI: Pepe, delivered the spare thin shell in Novem- Progress on the two second generation Geneva) progressed to its final design ber to ADS International (Italy), which will instruments for the VLTI has continued. review this year. The Final Design Review now proceed with gluing the voice coil GRAVITY (PI: Eisenhauer, Max-Planck was successful, but a delta-Final Design magnets and coating. This second shell Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics [MPE]) Review was deemed necessary and produced by SAFRAN-REOSC has is in its integration phase: the beam subsequently planned to deal with some shown a two- to three-fold improvement combiner is now integrated at MPE and aspects of the projects not addressed across all specifications. A second the infrared wavefront sensors at MPIA. and to close the major interfaces with the major intervention took place on UT4 in Among the major steps forward, the VLT, in particular the detailed design and September to finalise the modifications instrument has now seen the first fringes implementation of the four coudé trains. of the telescope. The telescope was from four beams in the lab, and most The interfaces with the structure required re-commissioned and after the interven- detectors have been delivered by ESO a fairly substantial effort and several trips tion revealed behaviour similar to the to the consortium, including the newly by the consortium members to Paranal. one before. In particular, vibration tests developed SAPHIRA wavefront sensor The instrument detectors benefitted from showed no visible impact on the VLTI, detector. The polarisation characteris- early procurement and the first engineer- and the new guider arm extension for tics with respect to the UTs have been ing device was received and tested at measured in a test campaign and critical ESO. The Final Design Review allowed issues are: how to deal with non-com- the procurement of the spectrograph mon path errors in the metrology injection optics to begin. Other contracts for major and how to eliminate parasitic light on components, including the large cameras the science detector injected by the and the laser frequency comb, have been metrology laser. The MATISSE (PI: Lopez, placed. OCA-NICE) project is also in its integration phase. MATISSE is proceeding on a The Adaptive Optics Facility entered the slower schedule than GRAVITY with the system test phase, with important deliv- PAE date now set for November 2015. eries taking place, and the focus of activi- The N-band detector has been delivered ty switching from subsystem to system by ESO and a test multiplexer has been aspects. The test readiness review took installed and used with the N-band place earlier in the year to validate the cold optics. Manufacture of the remaining readiness to proceed with this phase. subsystems is progressing steadily, In December 2012 the deformable sec- with some delays on the warm opto- ondary mirror (DSM) was delivered to An engineering sample of one of the CCD detectors to be used in the cameras of the ESPRESSO instru- mechanics, but without major concerns. Garching and the AOF team initiated the ment. This large CCD has more than 80 million pixels The consortium presented a report on optical tests of the unit on the ASSIST over an area of 92 × 92 millimetres.

46 ESO Annual Report 2013 MUSE-GALACSI has been successfully Following a recommendation by the STC teed observing time was approved by commissioned. The intervention was suc- in October 2012, the CUBES spectro- Council at its December meeting. cessful and UT4 is now ready to accom- graph project is waiting for the ratification modate the AOF. The first laser unit for of Brazil’s membership of ESO before After competitive Phase A studies for the 4LGSF was delivered to Garching and formal commencement. Following the multi-object spectrographs, two facilities has been interfaced with the 4LGSF sys- STC recommendations, an ultraviolet were evaluated: tem. The first launch telescope has also conference was organised in the autumn, – MOONS is an instrument for the infra- been integrated and tested in conditions gathering together a large section of the red and is proposed for the VLT; with a varying gravity vector and varying community who are interested in the – 4MOST works in the visible domain temperature, showing stable behaviour instrument. Valuable input was obtained and is proposed for the 4-metre VISTA that is compliant with the specifications. to improve the instrument requirements. telescope to achieve a very large field Eighteen wavefront sensor cameras using of view. e2v CCD220 and NGC controllers have The Laser Frequency Comb (LFC), a been produced and are awaiting lenslet revolutionary way of achieving a very pre- The science cases for both instruments installation before being integrated into cise series of equally spaced and stable and their telescopes were judged com- the adaptive optics modules GRAAL and lines for spectrograph calibration, was pelling and complementary. Both instru- GALACSI. The latter was also integrated approved for construction for the HARPS ments were therefore recommended for and several subsystems validated, includ- spectrograph in 2011. In 2012 a consor construction. MOONS, proposed by a ing the low-order infrared wavefront sen- tium of ESO, the Instituto de Astrofisica consortium led by M. Cirasuolo at UK sors. The GRAAL AO module has com- de Canarias (Spain) and the Universidade ATC, has been considered with higher pleted integration and the system tests Federal do Rio Grande de Norte (Brazil) priority and the negotiations for its study have started in the lab using a natural closed a contract with MENLO Systems and construction, as well as its definition, guide star on-axis mode. The GRAAL to provide the turnkey system. The started this year. For 4MOST, proposed SPARTA real-time computer is fully func- HARPS+LFC system was planned to be by a consortium led by R. de Jong at tional and was used to carry out these commissioned by the end of 2013, but AIP Potsdam, similar activities will start in tests and now commands the DSM. instead the project has suffered several 2014. months of delay due to reliability prob- ERIS will be a new facility at the UT4 lems with the photonic crystal fibre. Cassegrain focus that will feed both an VLTI infrastructure development infrared imager and an upgraded SINFONI In April the Paranal instrumentation road- integral-field spectrograph with AO- map was presented to the STC. The Following the re-structuring of the VLTI corrected wavefronts. ERIS will use the roadmap traces the path for the develop- infrastructure developments, five sepa- deformable mirror of the AOF as well as ment of new instruments for the LPO rate projects were established. Many one of its lasers to improve both the up to the year 2020. Within the plan, the activities during the year concentrated on spatial resolution and sky coverage com- start of a new instrument/project was the astrometric performance of PRIMA, pared to the current NACO and SINFONI envisaged for each year and, consistent and the evaluation of efforts to achieve instruments. Two institutes were selected with this, in April the STC recommended the science requirements. to collaborate with ESO on the con that the study and construction phases of struction of the instrument, after a com- the CRIRES upgrade (CRIRES+), and of VLTI-PR1: Auxiliary Telescope mainte- petitive call for proposals this year. A the MOONS and 4MOST spectrographs, nance station. The construction of a new consortium including MPE (Garching) and should proceed, delayed by one year. AT maintenance station on the VLT plat- ETH (Zurich) will participate in the camera form has proceeded. The requirements construction and the SPIFFI spectro- CRIRES+ is an upgrade project with the and statement of work were finalised and meter upgrade, while INAF/OAA (Italy) will aim of adding a cross-disperser to the a first call for proposals issued which, collaborate on the AO module. Instru- instrument, so that the whole 1–5 micro- unfortunately, did not produce a bidder. A ment requirements have been finalised, metre range can be covered with only a second call, addressing smaller compa- and the design is converging towards a few changes to the setup. A polarimetric nies, was successful, but the submitted Preliminary Design Review in 2014. mode is foreseen as well as the insertion bids were much more expensive than of new gas cells. The project will be foreseen. Action has been taken to evalu- Work on the VISIR upgrade continued, developed by ESO in collaboration with a ate possible trade-offs in the specifica- with excess noise on the new AQUARIUS consortium led by A. Hatzes (Tauten- tions, as well as in the organisation of the detector delaying a return to the tele- burg). After the Phase A review, the refur- work to contain the costs below an scope. During the year, extensive work in bishment of the CRIRES AO module acceptable ceiling. the lab, as well as discussions and visits was deemed desirable and was added to by the manufacturer, have now fully the scope of the project. Part of the pro- VLTI-PR2: PRIMA astrometry. The polari- characterised the problem. The solution ject is the use of three large (2k × 2k) and sation problem encountered in extending lies in using faster chopping and so vari- new infrared detectors. Procurement by the metrology to M2 has been fully ana- ous techniques for doing this have been one of the consortium partners has lysed and understood. PRIMA operations investigated. already started. The associated guaran- were carried out smoothly during the

ESO Annual Report 2013 47 second half of the year to characterise PRIMA’s astrometric performance. The short-time astrometric performance (~ 160 microarcseconds) is still several times worse than the specifications, although it has improved by more than a factor of ten since 2011. A full analysis report and a recovery plan for PRIMA astrometry was prepared for a critical PRIMA gate review that will be held at the beginning of 2014.

VLTI-PR3: Adaptive optics for ATs: NAOMI. Design activities that should bring NAOMI to Preliminary Design Review in 2014 are proceeding, espe cially in the areas of wavefront sensor design and communications between the SPARTA light real-time computer and the wavefront sensor camera. The cor- rective optics documentation has been finalised and a call for tender issued to identify one institute for collaboration on the construction budget. Detailed clarification questions have been sent to the relevant institute.

VLTI-PR4: Preparation for the second generation instruments GRAVITY and MATISSE. Some structural changes were needed to the project due to personnel departures during the year. Activities concentrated on the consolidation of interfaces in the various affected VLTI areas (laboratory, coudé rooms and basements). In parallel, progress occurred in the integration of UT dual feed equipment, with the first installation completed on UT1. In addition, a new version of the interferometer supervisor software was installed and used in operational conditions.

VLTI-PR5: Second generation fringe tracker. The project made slow progress in 2013. The project also includes the acquisition of the last two differential delay lines, which have completed their Final Design Review this year.

A perfect moment on the Paranal platform, where the number three seems to be the leitmotif. Three ESO staff members walk on the platform among three Auxiliary Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope, while three planets can be seen in a conjunction above them in the twilight sky. Jupiter

(top), Venus (lower left), and Mercury (lower right). Brammer ESO/G.

48 ESO Annual Report 2013 ESO Annual Report 2013 49 ESO/Y.Beletsky

50 ESO Annual Report 2013 Night view of one of the ALMA transporters, Otto, at the ALMA high site on the Chajnantor Plateau.

ESO Annual Report 2013 51 ALMA

ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/ – All European deliverables had been – The call for proposals for ALMA Submillimeter Array, is a large interferom- delivered (with the exception of the Cycle 2 (planned to start in June 2014) eter for radio wavelengths ranging from Residence). The last front end assem- resulted in 1382 proposals — believed 0.3 to 9.6 millimetres. After more than ten bly was delivered in March, and the to be the highest number of proposals years of construction activities, all sub- last European antenna, #25, in Sep- ever received by an observatory. systems were completed and put into tember. – The first ALMA development project, operation this year. The only remaining – At the end of December the last equipping all antennas with a Band 5 items are the construction of the ALMA equipped ALMA antenna was handed receiver, started in February. Prototypes Residence and the commissioning of over from assembly, integration and have been developed and fabricated in long baselines and some observing verification (AIV) to operations. This Europe and are already installed at modes. ALMA has been built by an inter- milestone marked the end of many ALMA. Full production by a European national collaboration between Europe, years of AIV work and provides ALMA consortium will continue until 2017. North America, and East Asia in collabo- with all 66 antennas. ration with the Republic of Chile. This – The permanent power system has new observatory comprises 66 high- been powering the whole observatory Site construction work precision antennas with state-of-the-art without interruption since mid-October, receivers located on the Chajnantor after gradually switching from the The ALMA Observatory comprises three Plateau of the Chilean Andes at 5000 temporary system over the course of sites: metres above sea level in the district of the year and weathering a few start-up – the ALMA Operations Support Facili- San Pedro de Atacama. The 12-metre issues. ties (OSF) at 2900 metres above sea antennas can be placed in configurations – A call for tender for the construction of level; with reconfigurable baselines ranging the ALMA Residence was issued. – the Array Operations Site (AOS), locat- from 15 metres to, ultimately, 16 kilo – By the end of the year, about 36% of ed at 5000 metres above sea level on metres. Resolutions as fine as 0.005 arc- the ALMA Early Science Cycle 0 pro- the Chajnantor Plateau; and seconds will be achieved at the highest jects with a European PI had produced – the Santiago Central Office at ESO’s frequencies, a factor of ten better than a printed refereed publication and Vitacura premises. the HST at optical wavelengths. additional projects have papers accepted or submitted, demonstrating The OSF is the operations centre for the By the end of the year, ALMA construc- the community’s widespread excite- entire ALMA Observatory and is also the tion had basically been completed, with ment about the ALMA data. place where the final assembly of the all subsystems delivered and in opera- – ALMA Early Science results from antennas was carried out. The assembly, tion. Scientific observations, ALMA Early Cycle 1 were coming out and provided integration and verification of antennas Science, which started in September to the PIs via the ARCs. The efficiency and other advanced equipment were com- 2011, continued as much as possible this of Early Science observations has pleted there before transport to the AOS. year, in conjunction with Cycle 1 observa- been affected by construction activi- tions. The major highlights at the end of ties and unusually bad weather during 2013 included: two periods of the year.

Clem & Adri Bacri-Normier (wingsforscience.com)/ESO Bacri-Normier Adri & Clem Aerial view of the Chajnantor Plateau, located at 5000 metres above sea level, where the array of ALMA antennas is located. The large antennas have a diameter of 12 metres, while 12 smaller antennas with a diameter of 7 metres make up the ALMA Compact Array.

52 ESO Annual Report 2013 that the system could be used, provided suitable precautions were followed. They recommended to JAO, however, that long-term measures should be incorpo- rated into the maintenance plans to ESO/Kouvo & Partanen avoid exposing the installation to further damage.

The design of the ALMA Residence, encompassing 120 rooms and all the required facilities such as a kitchen, dining room, general services, leisure facilities, etc. — contracted to the Archi- tectural Office Kouvo & Partanen (Finland) — was completed early this year. In May a call for tender for the construction of the Residence was released. Offers have Artist’s impression of the ALMA Residence showing The OSF technical facility buildings were been received and evaluated and clarifi- the main hall in the main building, which will provide completed and have been in use since cations and negotiations with the poten- a communal area for the staff working at the observatory. 2008, although there were substantial tial bidders are continuing. modifications/upgrades, completed in 2010, to ensure the best fit to the modi- The acceptance by the JAO of the 192 Manned operations at the AOS are limit- fied needs of the users. antenna foundations at the AOS, comed to an absolute minimum due to the pleted in 2010 and outfitted with preci- harsh environment. The AOS technical At the end of 2012, the multi-fuel power sion antenna interfaces in 2011–2012 building hosts the correlator, a special- generation system entered into operation slowed down due to a lack of resources ised computer that processes the digit- as the responsibility of JAO, initially feed- within the JAO. ised signals from the antennas before ing the OSF. The transition to full loads, they are transmitted via fibre optic lines to including the AOS, was accomplished the data storage facilities at the OSF. in May this year. There were some start- ALMA antennas up issues that affected the system: a limit ESO has, within the agreement con switch turned out not to be suitable for ESO has contributed 25 high-precision cluded with its international partners, the environment, the pneumatic damping antennas, each 12 metres in diameter, to assumed responsibility for providing sev- system on the fuel pumps lost its calibra- the ALMA antenna park. The delivery of eral major construction works on all three tion, leading to excess vibration, a pro- these antennas was completed in the ALMA sites. In addition, ESO has man- tection device was improperly configured, course of the year. The antennas were aged the construction of roads leading some workmanship issues had been manufactured by the AEM consortium, from the public Chilean highway to the identified, and two medium voltage cable composed of Thales Alenia Space (France OSF (15 kilometres), and continuing to the connections (out of 180) needed rework- and Italy), MT-Mechatronics (Germany) AOS (28 kilometres). These roads have ing. and European Industrial Engineering (Italy). been in use since 2010 and were handed Fabrication of the components was dis- over to JAO for maintenance in 2011. The These various issues were resolved dur- tributed between various subcontractors construction of the last element of the ing the year under contractual warranty across Europe. The antenna steel struc- road work, the fully featured intersection and, since October, the system has been ture (mount) was fabricated in Aviles, in with the public highway to replace the running without interruption, thanks partly northern Spain, where it was also pre- temporary one, started this year and is to the increased expertise of the opera- aligned prior to its shipping to Chile. The being carried out by the Ministerio de tors and some refinements to the proce- main dish structure and the receiver cabin, Obras Publicas as part of an agreement dures. The acceptance meeting took both made out of carbon fibre reinforced with ESO. It is expected to be completed place in December, with JAO’s recom- plastics, were fabricated, pre-assembled in early 2014. mendation to formally accept the system. and measured in France. The motors, the panels, the local control electronics, and At the OSF, ESO’s infrastructure contribu- This year, extreme levels of precipitation the metrology system were fabricated in tions are: affected the installation of the medium Italy and shipped either directly to Chile or – the OSF technical facilities building; voltage cables connecting the OSF to the to the various integration sites. Germany – the permanent power supply genera- AOS. However, thanks to some basic contributed various subsystems, including tion system for the entire ALMA Obser- preventive measures, the damage was the hexapod mechanism for the subreflec- vatory and the power distribution at limited and the situation could be recov- tor, legs made from carbon fibre rein- the OSF and up to the AOS; and ered quickly. A survey by safety repre- forced plastics, thermal insulation, elec- – the ALMA Residence. sentatives of the partnership concluded tronics and other parts.

ESO Annual Report 2013 53 In 2013, the average delivery rate of the Final antenna delivered European antennas kept to the tight to ALMA. schedule achieved in 2012, and around one antenna a month was delivered. So, by September, the last eight remaining antennas had been accepted by ESO from the AEM consortium and were handed over to ALMA.

Initial hopes of finishing before September vanished due to some unexpected cir- cumstances, including a period of severe Altiplanic winter weather disrupting some of the assembly and testing activities at the OSF. Also, two antennas needed more work before they could achieve their specified performance. These antennas were taken out of sequence in the processing so as not to affect the overall schedule. In the end, with a little more debugging effort by ESO and the AEM team, it was possible to track down the AEM antennas acceptance performance Delivery dates of the 25 25 issue and bring the antennas fully within accepted AEM antennas over a period of 29 specification, in line with all the other months. European antennas. Since deliveries 20 began in April 2011, a total of 25 anten- s nna er nas have been delivered over a period of er te 15 an

wint 29 months (see the figure on the right). wint

ed pt anic By the beginning of 2013, ESO and AEM anic tipl tipl cce 10 Al had already gained considerable experi- Al ence in operating the antennas at the # of a OSF and AOS. ESO has been tracking 5 any technical problems affecting the antennas systematically in order to verify 0 the reliability requirements and to identify Apr–11 Jul–11 Oct–11 Dec–11 Apr–12 Jul–12 Oct–12 Jan–13 Apr–13 Jul–13 Oct–13 any specific hardware items requiring attention as early as possible. On the basis of the results obtained, only a very This year ESO also started the final performed at the OSF and triggered by few minor retrofits were performed on inspection of those antennas whose the final inspection at the end of the war- any of the antennas, eliminating any out- guarantee period was expiring. As of end ranty period. For this very first antenna, standing issues and contributing to the of the year, four antennas were out of ESO decided to transport it down to the good overall availability of the antennas. warranty, with more accumulating at a OSF, while the remaining antennas will This process was also supported by rate of approximately one a month. In have their final inspection at the AOS. The interventions on site by AEM with some general it has been confirmed that the stability of DA41’s dish had already been key suppliers. antennas have completed their warranty investigated with astro-holography, but periods without degradation or visible it was comforting to see that the higher ESO had decided to use a computerised need for intervention. An important piece resolution holography at the OSF did system to track all antenna malfunctions of information regarding the performance show good long-term stability in the occurring during the warranty period. of the antennas was the confirmation in reflector system. This substantially simplified the interface April that the primary reflector of antenna with AEM on these matters and, in gener- DA41, the first antenna delivered, which With the expiring warranties in mind, ESO al, the treatment of warranty issues was had been exposed to the environmental has procured a considerable number of expedited. The departure of the contrac- conditions at the 5000-metre site for spares to support the first years of opera- tor from the site in the last quarter of the almost two years, had remained stable to tion and beyond. Most of the spares have year, after the last antenna was accepted, within the specifications (25 micrometres been delivered, but some critical items has resulted in a longer response time, over the full 12-metre diameter) and no relating to heating, ventilation and air- and ESO is looking into this issue for the reflector adjustment was required. This conditioning were not yet available on site, antennas still under warranty. was confirmed by a metrology campaign causing some downtime in December.

54 ESO Annual Report 2013 ESO/M. Marchesi ESO/M. EFE/Ariel Marinkovic EFE/Ariel

The final ALMA antenna is handed over to the This view of ALMA was taken from a small remote- observatory. controlled hexacopter.

The work of supporting ALMA AIV and The remaining activities throughout the familiar with, and self-supporting for, the the operation teams continued during the year focussed on supporting the JAO for maintenance of front end products deliv- year, providing help in debugging prob- maintenance. Several training sessions ered from Europe. In addition, spare lems, training and specific support at the for JAO staff, e.g., for water vapour parts were delivered, as well as dedicat- OSF and AOS. Further, the transition radiometers and amplitude calibration ed test equipment — e.g., a complete between the construction and the opera- devices, were organised to make staff Band 7 cartridge test set — and tools. tion phase of ALMA has been completed for the Antenna Group by transferring two antenna staff to the European ALMA EU FEIC staff at the Support Centre. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory celebrating STFC/ESO shipment of the last front end assembly to The front end system the OSF.

The European Front End Integrated Pro- ject Team completed the delivery of all production items early in the year. The table to the right summarises the delivery of major European front end products.

In March, the 70th and last front end assembly (the 26th from Europe) was successfully delivered by the EU Front End Integration Centre (FEIC), located at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK), to the OSF.

Directly after delivering this last front end assembly, the dismantling of the EU FEIC Product Delivered by 31 Dec 2013 Total Percentage complete started and was completed according Band 7 cartridges 73 73 100 % to schedule in early April. The equipment Band 9 cartridges 73 73 100 % that became available from the EU FEIC Cryostats 70 70 100 % was sent to the OSF, after consultation with the JAO, while other items were sent Water vapour radiometers 58 58 100 % to ESO Garching. Front end DC power supplies 83 83 100 % Amplitude calibration devices 70 70 100 % European front end assemblies 26 26 100 %

ESO Annual Report 2013 55 The back end system and the correlator Non–recoverable hardware failures that Significant effort was invested during the were suspected to be caused by cosmic year in commissioning and Science The final delivery of ESO’s contribution to rays remained at a reasonably low level. Verification activities in order to deploy the back end subsystem took place this new observing modes for Cycles 1 and 2. year: the final batch of spare photomix- Some of the highlights were: ers, with the relevant documentation, was ALMA Computing 1. The expansion of the correlator delivered to the Observatory. With this, modes, allowing increased flexibility the supply of the back end by ESO is ALMA Computing construction activities for spectral line and continuum obser- completed in terms of components, were completed by end of 2012. Further vations, greatly enhancing the scientific equipment, documentation and training. computing activities moved to operations potential of each individual observa- as of 1 January as part of the European tion; The ALMA correlator is a highly special- ALMA Support Centre and are described 2. The commissioning of the first continu- ised super-computer, processing data in the EASC section. um, on-axis, polarisation modes, and from up to 64 antennas at a maximum of the Band 4 and 8 receivers, which rate of about 2 × 1015 operations per will all be offered in the upcoming second. The system performance and System Engineering and Integration Cycle 2; the main design technical challenges are 3. The steady expansion towards longer described in The Messenger, 135, 6, The European ALMA System Engineering baselines, enhancing the angular reso- 2009 and the ALMA Newsletter, 7, 18, and Integration team completed its ALMA lution provided by the array. 2011. construction tasks by the end of 2012. Progress was also made in numerous In 2012 the ALMA correlator was com- other areas, improving the overall effi- pleted, with the installation of the fourth ALMA Science ciency of the observations and testing quadrant at the AOS and its provisional advanced observing modes for future acceptance at the end of the year. During By the end of this year, about 36% of cycles, including a few campaigns dedi- this year the correlator went through the ALMA Early Science Cycle 0 projects cated to the testing of solar observing. an extended campaign of commissioning with a European PI have resulted in a and integration tests carried out by the published, refereed publication and addi- Several scientific results were published, North American ALMA partner. tional projects have papers accepted based on Science Verification datasets for publication or submitted. The very fast that had been released in the second half The disruptive events caused to the publication timescales demonstrate the of 2012 (see p. 38, for an example). This programmable components inside the widespread excitement in the community demonstrates the complexity and scien- correlator by cosmic rays at the about the ALMA data and their excellent tific value of each individual ALMA data- 5000-metre AOS site turned out not to be scientific quality. A large fraction of the set and the enormous potential for archi- a major issue: there are roughly ten overall ALMA publications so far have val research. Most of the ALMA Cycle 0 events per day, and the mitigation meas- appeared in high impact journals (such as data will become available for download ures that were implemented have demon- Nature and Science), demonstrating in early 2014. strated their ability to limit the impact of the transformational nature of the ALMA these events to within acceptable limits. Observatory.

Technician Juan Carlos Gatica checks electronics on the ALMA correlator. He is using supplemental One of the first six Band 5 receiver cartridges built oxygen at the high altitude site. for ALMA. Carlos Padilla, NRAO/AUI/NSF Onsala Space Observatory/Alexey Pavolotsky Observatory/Alexey Space Onsala

56 ESO Annual Report 2013 Jy beam–1 km s–1 Jy beam–1 Jy beam–1 km s–1 Jy beam–1 km s–1 0.0 0.100.200.300.40.5 0.0 .1 .2 .3 0.0 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.080.18

4 + + 13 + + HCO 4–3 10 HCO 4–3 H CO 4–3DCO 5–4 & 19K midplane

) 1 – s) s) 2 s 8 m (k

second second 0 ty 6 rc rc oci l

c (a 4 c (a –2 Ve De De Δ 2 Δ 150 AU 150 AU 150 AU –4 SoutheastNorthwest 0 4–202 –4 –4 –2 0 2 4 210–1–2210–1 –2 ΔRA (arcseconds) Distance (arcseconds) ΔRA (arcseconds) ΔRA (arcseconds)

Direct measurement of the carbon monoxide snowline in the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young star HD 163296. (Mathews et al., 2013) ESO/C. Malin ESO/C.

A bright meteor over the ALMA array.

ESO Annual Report 2013 57 ESO/L. Calçada/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org) Artist’s impression of the European Extremely Large Telescope deploying lasers for adaptive optics.

ESO Annual Report 2013 59 European Extremely Large Telescope

During this year the E-ELT project has continued its preparations to move towards full construction while the full funding is being secured. With the approval of the ESO Council and Finance Committee, a critical milestone for the project was passed in late 2013: the contract with ICAFAL Ingeniería y Construc- ción S.A. for the approach road and platform on Cerro Armazones has been placed.

The 26-kilometre road will connect the Armazones summit with the B-710 public highway that connects the Paranal Observatory with the Chilean road network. The Armazones platform will require the removal of approximately 15 metres in height from the summit of the mountain. The total area of the platform will exceed 30 000 square metres. The work is expected to last 18 months and be ready for the start of on-site activities by the dome constructor in 2016.

At Armazones, the plans have been developing with respect to the lay-down areas, the construction base camp and the necessary facilities (access, power, The seismic isolation test bed at ESO's Garching water, sewage etc) to support both ESO’s test facility. Both the lateral and the vertical components of the earthquake acceleration are significantly and the contractor’s activities at the site. diminished through this isolation device, offering The preparations require the removal protection to both dome and telescope of the E-ELT. of existing installations from the site, including the facilities belonging to the the final stages of preparation of the d’Astrophysique de Marseille has com- Universidad Catolica del Norte and ESO’s detailed specifications, following vigorous pleted the design, manufacturing, and site-monitoring equipment. and extensive interaction with industry. integration of a new concept of a warping harness. Such devices help to produce The testing of the Armazones site has The telescope optical systems have also segments using the stressed mirror pol- been the most extensive that any pro- been advancing. The contract with Adop- ishing technique. Warping tests were spective ESO site has undergone. In tica for the deformable quaternary mirror successful and the first polishing trials addition to normal atmospheric parame- (M4) is progressing well, and has passed have started. All this bodes well for the ters (seeing, wind speed, temperature a series of milestones. The design effort production of the 931 segments neces- etc) and parameters critical to the perfor- is focussed on mitigating various techni- sary for the telescope. mance of adaptive optics systems, we cal and programmatic risks identified in have also measured the topographic the prototyping phase. The deformable The prototype systems developed during amplification factor on Armazones for mirror relies on a stable backplane to the design phase have been extensively earthquakes. The shape of the mountain provide the reference body for the actua- used over the past few years to gain may act to focus seismic waves, thereby tors. The E-ELT M4 reference body will expertise in the control of segments, changing the ground acceleration relative be made of silicon carbide. including the interplay between different to that which would be expected for a segments, cross-coupling between actu- given earthquake strength. ESO installed During the year there was substantial ators in a single segment and vibration seismometers at the Armazones site progress in setting up the manufacturing control. The lessons learnt are propagat- and established an empirical measure of and testing process for the primary ing through our specifications for second the amplification factor. mirror segments. The successful delivery generation systems that will form the some years ago by Sagem of prototype basis for the construction system of seg- All of these efforts are in anticipation of segments has now been reproduced, ment support and actuation. Significant the tendering, in 2014, for the construc- with different technologies, at Optic advances are also being made in the area tion of the dome and main structure of Glyndwr with a first segment being suc- of edge sensors and phasing sensors. the telescope. Both these elements are in cessfully polished. The Laboratoire These are both critical in reducing the

60 ESO Annual Report 2013 Prototype of part of the instruments, MICADO and HARMONI, in adaptive support system 2014. Planning and preparation of the for the M4 mirror of the E-ELT. The prototype specifications and statements of work are has 350 actuators and underway. In parallel with this, work on

Microgate/ADS/ESO co-located sensors. A the instrument interfaces is progressing small section of the thin on two fronts. The architecture of the mirror shell is mounted on the left part of the instruments on the Nasmyth platform has prototype in the picture. been studied in some depth, seeking to On the right the refer- find an optimal solution for accommodat- ence surface is visible ing the instruments and their adaptive as well as the sensors. The actuators are posi- optics modules via a possible revision of tioned inside the holes the baseline design for the pre-focal sta- of the reference surface. tion. Studies of the standard components that will be applicable to the E-ELT instruments are also underway. Standards for cryogenic components and instrument control are being considered, as well as for subsystems such as readout electronics for wavefront sensors, technical and scientific detectors. The start of design E-ELT technical demon- work on the three instruments in the stration wavefront Instrument Roadmap to follow on from sensors. the first-light instruments is the next major milestone for the instrumentation programme. The workshop, Shaping E-ELT Science and Instrumentation, in February, drew input from the ESO community on the scientific cases for the next instruments. A call for proposals for instruments to deliver these cases will be made in 2014. The next three instruments will be a mid-infrared imager and spectrograph, a high-resolution spectrograph and a multi-object spectrograph.

The E-ELT Science Office has had a busy year releasing the top-level requirements for the first-light instruments discussed overall calibration needs of the telescope, ware and algorithms. Work has been above and working extensively with the hopefully reducing the amount of sky ongoing on a segment concentrator that community and their representatives on time needed to calibrate the primary mir- would reduce the cabling and network the project science team in the develop- ror. In this area, the project is also making complexity within the extensive M1 control ment of top-level requirements for the major advances in testing algorithms and system. Scaling of the real-time computing next three instruments. The E-ELT pro- phasing techniques at the GTC telescope needs of the telescope has long been the gramme has now matured sufficiently to in the Canaries, using observing time that focus of the project. Two major milestones warrant its own subcommittee at the STC was allocated as part of the ESO–Spain were passed: the acceptance of a scale- and the first meeting was held this year. Accession Agreement. These measure- one full ground layer adaptive optics per- ments are providing the project with formance real time controller for the M4 The E-ELT project, like the rest of ESO, direct hands-on experience of realistic unit of the E-ELT, made from off-the-shelf was restructured this year to match the performance and the challenges of ob PC hardware systems, and the production new full matrix work plan of the organisa- serving with a segmented primary mirror. and testing in the field of a “mini-real-time- tion. While almost all of the work is controller” for the NAOS adaptive optics undertaken within the Engineering Direc- The control system for the E-ELT also saw system at the VLT, based on E-ELT adopt- torate, the cohesion in, and direction of, much work during the year. Much, if not ed standards. the project is provided by the programme all, of the prototype testing was undertak- manager and the programme engineer, en within the framework that we are Activities in the area of E-ELT instrumen- supported by the programme controller. establishing for telescope control. The tation increased in intensity during the The past year has been one of transition testing therefore provides direct feedback year, in preparation for the anticipated for the project as the E-ELT moves closer to the control system as well as the hard- launch of the contracts for first-light to construction.

ESO Annual Report 2013 61 Engineering ESO/F. Kamphues ESO/F.

62 ESO Annual Report 2013 The Directorate of Engineering pro- Information Technology Division The SAXO extreme adaptive optics sys- vides engineering resources and tem designed for SPHERE has shown a services to ESO programmes as well An IT Division was created within the performance with Strehl ratios above as to the operations teams at the Directorate with the goal of streamlining 90% at H-band up to an R-magnitude of Observatory and at Headquarters. and consolidating IT services at ESO. 10, and still remaining higher than 50% The IT Division is structured around four at R ~ 14 in 0.85-arcsecond seeing and The Directorate went through a remain departments. The two local sites 12 m/s windspeed. Strehl ratios in the organisation this year that was part of in Garching and in Chile are responsible optical exceed 50% on bright stars. In the Matrix 2013 project. This project for day-to-day IT operations and the 1.1-arcsecond seeing, the H-band Strehl was initiated by the ESO Management delivery of the agreed-upon services to ratio is still 85%. The raw point spread to strengthen the matrix organisation the sites’ customers. The central IT function (PSF) contrast, which does not and associated processes needed to Strategy and Governance Department is make use of any differential quasi-static conduct the ESO programme in the responsible for developing technical and speckle calibration techniques, is already E-ELT era. operational strategies, technical stand- good enough to detect all of the exo ards, processes and procedures that are planets directly imaged so far in a few applicable across the whole of ESO. The minutes of observation time. main responsibilities of the Central Ser- vice Desk and Procurement Department After the arrival of SPHERE at the obser- are the operation of the Helpdesk, the vatory, the assembly and integration coordination of all IT-related procure- phase will start in early March 2014. The ments with Contracts and Procurement first commissioning run with first light at as well as the management of the IT the VLT is scheduled for May 2014. After hardware and the software inventory. commissioning all observing modes and the completion of Science Verification, it Meanwhile, the IT Division continued to is foreseen that SPHERE will be offered provide day-to-day services to all ESO for open-time observations in April 2015. users and has completed a number of projects, such as the deployment of a new telephone system in Garching. Sodium laser unit test

Laser unit 1 of the four-laser system cur- Adaptive Optics Department rently being manufactured for the AOF was delivered to ESO in November. This The instrument SPHERE successfully delivery followed a test period and a fac- went through PAE and will receive the tory readiness review. This 20-watt class go-ahead for shipment to the Paranal laser, which has an output wavelength Observatory early in February 2014. at 589 nanometres resonant with atomic The figure below shows the instrument sodium in the mesosphere, started further fully integrated in the laboratory at IPAG tests and integration into the ESO facility in Grenoble, France. prior to acceptance of the laser unit.

SPHERE in the assembly laboratory at IPAG with all instruments integrated.

Close-up of the VISTA camera.

ESO Annual Report 2013 63 1.1-metre deformable secondary mirror Deformable secondary mirror installed on the ASSIST tower. At the In December 2012, the new deformable bottom right the GRAAL secondary mirror was delivered to ESO adaptive optics module by the Italian companies Microgate and can be seen ready for ADS. system testing with the DSM. The DSM will replace the current sec ondary in one of the VLT’s four UTs. The entire secondary structure includes a set of 1170 actuators that apply a force on 1170 magnets glued to the back face of the thin shell. Sophisticated, special- purpose electronics control the behaviour of the thin-shell mirror. The reflecting surface can be deformed up to a thousand times per second by the action of the actuators.

Following the functional acceptance tests, the DSM was mounted on the ASSIST test tower in the Assembly Hall. The mirror was optically characterised at ESO during the year with the support of Microgate-ADS and INAF/OAA at Arcetri.

The mirror optical quality reaches 38 The 1.1-metre diameter, nanometres root mean square (rms) after 2-millimetre thick Zerodur thin shell mirror optical calibration. Post-processing in its transport box. shows that, removing the contribution of the ASSIST test bench, the mirror would reach 18 nanometres rms wavefront error.

Second 1.1-metre, 2-millimetre-thick shell delivery

The second 2-millimetre Zerodur thin shell, 1.12 metres in diameter, with excellent quality, was accepted from SAGEM (France) at the end of the year. The shell surface accuracy is a factor of five times better than the first shell delivered and the thickness uniformity is three times the magnetic fields provided by the 1170 mises the real-time pipeline. The real-time better, with excellent surface finishing. voice coils. unit can either be a multi-technology This new shell is considered to be the system with central processing units, dig- science grade unit for the VLT DSM while ital signal processors and field-program- the first one will become the spare. High performance real-time computer for mable gate arrays, featuring a remarkably the SPARTA AO system low latency of 80 microseconds for The suppliers of the complete DSM SPHERE and very low jitter, or a normal system supporting the thin shell, On 18 December SPHERE passed its central processing unit for smaller sys- Microgate and ADS International (Italy), PAE and received the go-ahead to leave tems. The cluster is an array of comput- have developed dozens of new proce- for Paranal. SPHERE brings with it the ing-centre-class server systems where dures, handling tools, crates and trans- first SPARTA system. SPARTA is a com- distributed computing is performed. port boxes to ensure that every step plete system to perform adaptive optics of the way for this fragile mirror shell is control. It consists of a real-time unit in SPARTA is designed to be scalable, from safe. Paradoxically, the safest place which the real-time pipeline from sensors small systems like NAOMI (the VLTI AO for the shell is when it is mounted on the to actuators is implemented, and a system for the ATs) and GRAVITY, with telescope and securely held in place by supervisor cluster that controls and opti- about 100 actuators, to larger systems

64 ESO Annual Report 2013 like GRAAL and GALACSI with more Algorithm System Speed-up than 1000 actuators, multiple sensors and Factor laser guide star systems. It supports a Cumulative reconstructor with domain decomposition variety of sensors and AO architectures. SCAO/XAO 100–1000 (CuReD, CuRe w/ preprocessing) The concept of a common platform shared across the various AO-assisted CLIF for Pyramid wavefront sensing XAO 200 instruments has already produced Multi-Cure for Ground Layer AO GLAO 100–1000 significant savings in the labour cost Kaczmarz MCAO/LTAO/MOAO 10–200 necessary to build multiple AO systems Conjugate gradient MCAO/LTAO/MOAO 10–20 and the saving will become increasingly important as more systems are built Wavelets with preconditioned conjugate gradient MCAO/LTAO/MOAO 10–100 around the SPARTA platform, the next scheduled system being ERIS. Six algorithm types considered by the Austrian team.

Control and Instrument Software and E-ELT M1 test facilities, M1 control sys- Advanced smart AO algorithms from Software Engineering Departments tem, position actuator prototypes and the Austria instrument control system framework. The Programmable Logic Controllers Substantial work has been done on On 22 October 2013, the final review of a project is an internal Directorate of Engi- damping and rejection technologies for four-year project, Mathematical Algorithms neering activity that has been running the E-ELT segmented mirror system and Software for ELT Adaptive Optics, since its approval this year. The project and the development of rejection algo- came to its conclusion. This project, part was started to complete the modernisa- rithms for the AO systems of the VLT. of the Austria’s in-kind contributions to its tion of the VLT control system to support accession to ESO, was approved by the PLCs and Ethernet-based field buses ESO Council in June 2008. as the new standard platform for devel- Data Flow Infrastructure Department oping control systems for future VLT This project aimed to develop algorithms instruments. The goal of the project is not The department’s work this year was and software for the correction of only the evaluation of the technology, but dominated by enhancing existing services degraded images due to atmospheric also the implementation of the software for the end-to-end VLT data flow, such turbulence for adaptive optics (AO) on a devices, including a software engineering as support for the Phase 1 monitoring faster timescale than the traditional environment. In addition, ESO staff are programmes, moving target support in approach. The challenge was to invent a being trained in the new technology to be the Service Mode Observing Tool, inges- radically new approach to this problem ready for ESPRESSO and ERIS, the first tion of internal data products, media- whilst simultaneously reducing the instruments to use the new standard. based delivery of huge datasets and pre- required computing load. imaging support in the archive request handler. New Reflex workflows are pro- The Austrian team comprised three insti- Control Engineering Department vided for various instruments and miscel- tutes based in Linz: The Industrial Mathe- laneous improvements were carried out matics Institute of the University, the After the successful installation of the to Phase 2 Proposal Preparation, to the Johan Radon Institute for Computational ESO Standard Telescope Axis Controller archive’s calibration selector and the and Applied Mathematics of the Austrian on the four Auxiliary Telescopes, deploy- Paranal and Garching Night Log Tools. Academy of Science and the Industrial ment now continues on the Unit Tele- Work on the new unified guide cam tool Mathematics Competence Center. It con- scopes. UT1 was the first to have the covering AOF instruments was started sidered six AO-system types and ana- new controller permanently installed in and new operational concepts to support lysed extensively four to eight mathemati- November, with the remaining UTs to dynamic prioritisation of long-running cal reconstruction algorithms. The follow in 2014. The VST is the next candi- observation programmes were explored. resulting algorithms (see table) are very date for an upgrade to the new controller Additionally, studies, prototyping and fast, provide excellent quality and can in 2014. In cooperation with the Control knowledge ramp-up were carried out on provide enormous savings in the comput- and Instrument Software Department, the evolution of the ESO Archive Facility ing power required to perform the wave- the new controller algorithm will also be and on a new web-based Phase 1 and 2 front reconstruction on future AO sys- ported to new platforms (e.g., Beckhoff proposal submission system. tems for the E-ELT. However, probably PLCs). In the LPO obsolescence man- the most significant achievement of this agement programme the VLT M1/M3 study was to make the control of those upgrade has been developed and tested Detector Systems Department AO systems manageable with computers in Garching. The final deployment and of reasonable size and cost and, in the tests will be carried out in 2014. The Monolithic charged coupled device (CCD) extreme case of XAO, to bring such a department provides control engineering production has reached the six-inch complex system into the domain of feasi- support to ALMA, the VLT and all E-ELT wafer scale limit, with the production of ble implementations. systems, and has a leading role in the the new CCD types for ESPRESSO. As a

ESO Annual Report 2013 65 result of a competitive tendering pro- sor cameras for the first time at Paranal last 12 months and two others are in the cess and careful detector selection for with the commissioning of the SPHERE final design phase. System engineering ESPRESSO’s precision and stability instrument in the coming months. Four- has also been provided for two E-ELT requirements in the nanometre range, teen more wavefront sensor cameras are instruments. 9k × 9k, 10-micrometre pixel CCDs with destined for delivery to the AOF in the 16 outputs were procured from e2v. After coming months. One of the department’s staff members achieving warm first light in mock-up (Juan Carlos González) was appointed mechanics, the first ESPRESSO detector The quarter-sized 880 × 840 pixel proto- E-ELT System Engineer, strengthening recently achieved first laboratory light in type of the ambitious, 1680 × 1680 pixel the link between telescope and the the ESO prototype cryostat, connected to large format, high-speed E-ELT large instrumentation. an ESO NGC controller. natural/laser guide star wavefront sensor detector (code named NGSD) has been A new tool for system engineering (mod- The application of the noise-free electron manufactured and is currently under el-based system engineering) has been avalanche gain of HgCdTe material to evaluation by e2v Technologies (www. adopted and tested on an instrument near-infrared wavefront sensing and e2v.com). project (CUBES). This activity was sup- fringe tracking has resulted in a new ported by the Control and Instrument technological breakthrough. By changing Software Department. the growth technology to metal organic Electronic Engineering Department chemical vapour phase epitaxy, devices A number of outreach activities (e.g., a can now be operated at temperatures The department is heavily involved in presentation at the EIROforum School on of 85 K with 99.97% of pixel operability LPO-related obsolescence management Instrumentation, co-chair of the Science at maximum avalanche gain. For the projects. Organising Committee for Scientific GRAVITY wavefront sensors the readout Detector Workshop in Florence) have also noise can be reduced to the negligible Our department is providing support to been conducted. value of 0.2 electrons rms. This is a new the LPO, not only at system development enabling technology for adaptive optics level, but also with respect to small pro- and interferometry and has been devel- ject management. At the project level, in Mechanical and Cryogenic Engineering oped in collaboration with SELEX SE in November, the department successfully Department the UK. managed to deliver the UT2 Safety chain project in time to the LPO team. At the The work related to reducing vibrations in Careful analysis and laboratory evaluation system level, thanks to the proof of con- cryogenic instruments was completed of the AQUARIUS detector has resulted cept for virtualisation carried out last year when a comprehensive vibration specifi- in a detailed understanding of its reduced on the MACCON motion controller board cation for VLT UT instruments was gener- instrument sensitivity. The problem is using field-programmable gate array ated and released. associated with the thickness of the technology, we were able to extend this blocking layer in the detector that is a work to the high voltage for Multiple The department provided the detector source of excess low frequency noise. Application Curvature Adaptive Optics mounts for MATISSE. An AQUARIUS This problem can be mitigated by the use and avalanche photodiode counter detector was integrated with the N-band, of higher chopping frequencies of the boards upgrade. Support to instrument and a HAWAII2RG detector with the secondary mirror of the VLT. It is planned projects is the second biggest activity of L-band, cryostats. Specific cryogenic to re-commission the detector and the the department. This year we have con- VISIR instrument in the summer of 2014. tributed to the successful deployment of the PARLA laser, and supported MUSE, The NGC detector controller system is SPHERE, GRAVITY and GALACSI instru- now in routine operation at the VLT and ments. On the E-ELT project, we have has reached a very high level of maturity. concentrated our activities on evaluating It has been used to operate many differ- the M1 cell on the Garching Hochbrück ent detector types, such as the large test stand, and finalising its related slow-scan ESPRESSO CCD and the very requirements documents. high-speed mid-infrared AQUARIUS detector. It is very adaptable and continues to meet all instrumentation needs. Instrument Systems Department With further development it will meet the requirements of detectors for the E-ELT. The department has supported a total of nine instrumentation projects — on aver- Zero read-noise, high frame rate of 1500 age one per staff member — providing frames per second operation, CCD220 project management and/or system AQUARIUS is a high flux 1K × 1K Si:As array for ground-based observations in the mid-infrared. It will L3Vision sensors will be deployed in the engineering. Two major instruments, be used by the VLT mid-infrared instrument VISIR and AO version of the NGC for wavefront sen- KMOS and MUSE, saw first light in the also in the VLTI instrument MATISSE.

66 ESO Annual Report 2013 F. Kamphues/TNO/ESO F. ESO/G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com) Hüdepohl ESO/G.

The MUSE instrument during installation at the High-power laser test of the VLT’s 4LGSF laser launch Paranal Observatory. telescope in the ESO climatic chamber in Garching.

GRAVITY wavefront sensor. Members of the GRAAL instrument team, inspecting GRAAL’s mechanical assembly in the integration hall at ESO Headquarters in Garching.

preamplifiers were customised. Four- been designed, integrated and now com- vide that facility with multiple (four) laser Kelvin thermal testing and optimisation missioned. This will allow the necessary guide stars. were supported. telescope focus shift to be accommodat- ed for MUSE to operate. Additional department work included MUSE’s vacuum cryogenic system was attaching GRAAL to the ASSIST test dismounted from the instrument and After extensive work to improve the cryo- bench ready for the start of system test- reintegrated at the Paranal Observatory. genic and detector performance, the first ing and the continuation of GALACSI The instrument is operational and the GRAVITY wavefront sensor cryostat integration. 24 cryostats are running smoothly, fed equipped with the SAPHIRA infrared by two liquid nitrogen tanks. Follow-up detector has been delivered to the ESPRESSO camera support was pro to integration and assembly for MUSE GRAVITY consortium. vided to the detector team and integra- continued up to PAE, which was granted. tion and lenslet alignment provided to After transfer to Paranal, support was The first 4LGSF launch telescope system some of the wavefront sensor cameras provided for re-integration in the new unit has been fully integrated and aligned. prepared for SPHERE, GRAAL and integration hall. The second unit is expected to be GALACSI. aligned very soon. The final two units will A new sensor arm for MUSE, which is sit- be aligned and tested in 2014. These The ESO Technical Archive has been uated within the telescope rotator, has units will be installed on UT4 and will pro- moved over to a document management

ESO Annual Report 2013 67 Work for the adaptive optics facility been delivered for commissioning, Sci- included support for testing a new guider ence Verification and operations. The arm for the back focal length extension MUSE pipeline has been deployed on a to enable MUSE and GALACSI to work multi-threaded 64-core architecture. together. We are also responsible for the High-performance computing remained a 4LGSF, which continued assembly, inte- major area of development, in particular gration and testing. to support the parallelisation of the image processing in the ALMA/CASA package. ESO/G.Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com) ESO/G.Hüdepohl The PARLA laser project, delivering a new prototype laser source as an The development of science grade data upgrade of the existing laser guide star products and Reflex workflows has facility at Unit Telescope 4 on Paranal, continued, with the definition of a FORS- was completed. The new laser system, VIMOS pipeline upgrade project. The based on fibre laser technology devel- Austrian in-kind contribution for sky- oped by ESO, replaced the original modelling projects was successfully PARSEC dye laser system, which was completed this year. A one-day Garching- reaching the end of its life after making Vitacura workshop on telluric correction many important discoveries. The upgrad- was organised in June. The completion ed laser guide star facility delivers up to of the sky spectrum model project is 7 watts of optical power onto the sky a major contribution to the exposure time at the sodium-resonant wavelength of calculator system, as it provides a vast 589 nanometres. Availability of the facility improvement in the accuracy of the for science operations has very signifi- results. cantly increased to around 200 hours per month after the upgrade. Structure and System Analysis Depart- ment The LGSF during PARLA commissioning. Pipeline Systems Department The main activities of the department The department is responsible for the were dedicated to writing, consolidating system. This has been configured to design, implementation and maintenance and justifying requirements for the vari- allow very easy access to all of ESO’s of the data processing and numerical ous E-ELT supply specifications. technical documents. An area within software components, which are critical this system is set aside for collaborative for the end-to-end operations of the ESO Based on detailed structural, control working. This has been configured data flow systems for the VLT, VLTI, sur- and optical ray-tracing models, system and will be used by projects to share vey and La Silla telescopes, as well as analysis support was provided to evalu- documents more efficiently and to ALMA. This includes the Common Pipe- ate performance budgets (e.g., wavefront release them to the archive within the line Library, the VLT instrument pipelines, error, stroke, deformation) of the com- same system. the ALMA/CASA data reduction software plete telescope, including its subsystems and the exposure time calculators. and to derive requirements at various specification levels. Optics and Photonics Department The KMOS and MUSE pipelines have provided major additions to the suite of A passive mirror support for the E-ELT The department is active in optical design VLT pipelines during the year. The KMOS M2 unit has been designed at a concep- for telescopes and instruments, active pipeline, including a Reflex workflow, has tual level and its feasibility analytically optics and wavefront control, metrology applied to E-ELT edge sensors and telescope alignment, laser guide stars, and The molecfit graphical user interface, the optical fibres for instruments including front end interface to ESPRESSO. We maintain the optics labo- the telluric absorption ratory and support the integration and correction program test of optical systems. developed in the framework of the Austrian in-kind contribution. Investigation of stray light on the VST dur- The window shows a ing bright periods led to the design and CRIRES spectrum, with successful demonstration of an improved fitting exclusion zones defined between the baffling scheme that is now being imple- bands. mented as a permanent installation on the telescope.

68 ESO Annual Report 2013 Installation of mechanical test set-up was developed seismic station at by the VLTI and Control Software Depart- Cerro Armazones. ments. The measurements and simulation helped to pinpoint the culprit for PRIMA’s polarisation misbehaviour and correct for it by fixing a quarter-wave compensation plate to the field de-rotator at the coudé focus of the telescopes. This led to successful and reliable astrometric test observations in September. The astrometric performance of PRIMA could then be evaluated at ~ 160 microarcseconds peak-to-peak accuracy (with non-gaussian dispersion) compared to the required performance of 20–50 microarcseconds rms. The accuracy is limited by the position of the retro-reflector of PRIMA (on mirror M2) and its uncon- Streamlines and pres- trolled movement with respect to the stel- sure distribution from lar entrance pupil (i.e., narrow-angle E-ELT dome and main structure computational baseline stability). A recovery plan to fluid dynamics analysis. reach the desired accuracy was prepared by the project team and is to be pre sented to an independent review board (PRIMA Gate Review) in January 2014.

The department also leads the continuous development of the VLTI supervisor software in charge of coordinating this complex infrastructure. We developed and tested new features needed by the PRIMA investigation, by the second generation instruments GRAVITY and MATISSE and by the regular software upgrades and improvements for operations.

validated. The proposed new design is port the requirements definitions for the The department provided system engi- expected to be less complex, stiffer and windscreen and tracking performance. neering and project engineering support cheaper than the original active support for the follow-up of the second genera- configuration. tion instruments GRAVITY and MATISSE VLTI Department and for the design of the VLTI second Transient earthquake analyses of the generation fringe tracker. In particular, we E-ELT main structure, including pier The VLTI Department provides project collaborated with the GRAVITY consorti- and seismic isolation systems were per- engineering, system engineering and um to perform polarisation measure- formed to evaluate the accelerations in software coordination support for ments on the VLTI infrastructure and Unit the subsystems. projects related to the development of Telescopes, complementing the meas- the VLTI infrastructure and of VLTI instru- urements mentioned above. A measurement campaign of the seismic ments. topographical amplification factor at Cerro Finally the installation and test of the Armazones was conducted to determine The main activity of this year was the star separators on the Auxiliary and Unit the amplification effect of the mountain investigation of PRIMA’s (Phase- Telescopes continued. First light of the shape. The results were evaluated and Referenced Imaging and Micro-arcsecond star separator on UT1 on sky, a major used to update the earthquake load Astrometry facility) difficulties in reach- milestone in preparation of the infra specification for the E-ELT. ing the astrometric accuracy goals fixed structure for the GRAVITY instrument, at the start of the project. The VLTI’s was obtained in November. It showed Computational fluid dynamics analysis polarisation behaviour with the ATs was an excellent pointing and control of the studies of the E-ELT dome and main simulated by the Structure and System beam tip-tilt and pupil position. structure have been performed to sup- Analysis Department while an opto-

ESO Annual Report 2013 69 The VLTI laboratory.

70 ESO Annual Report 2013 ESO Annual Report 2013 71 Administration

The ESO Headquarters extension in Garching.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony at the inauguration of the ESO Headquarters extension on 4 Decem- ber 2013. From left to right in the picture: Patrick Geeraert, ESO Director of Administration, Tim de Zeeuw, ESO Director General, Hannelore Gabor, Mayor of Garching, Xavier Barcons, President of the ESO Council and Christoph Haupt, ESO Head-

ESO/S. Lowery quarters extension project manager. The ESO Headquarters extension build- Celebrating 50 years of ings were accepted in December after ESO in Chile. 24 months of construction work. The official inauguration took place on the occasion of the 129th ESO Council meeting, which was held in the new council room. Just before Christmas, the buildings were opened for the staff with a housewarming party. Furnishing and moving offices started at the end of December and will be completed during the first quarter of 2014. With the completion of the Head- quarters extension, the ESO staff are now finally co-located in one place. The new technical building will be used for the development, integration and testing of E-ELT instruments and enabling technologies.

Following some fundraising efforts, the Klaus Tschira Stiftung has decided to The Finance Committee donate a planetarium and visitor centre visiting ALMA during its 137th meeting, held in to ESO. The new facility will be called Chile in November. ESO Supernova – Planetarium & Visitor Centre. A project team comprising the Outreach Department, Legal Services and the Facility Management Department provided input for the equipment and facilities and have drafted possible operational scenarios. The building permits will be requested in the first half of 2014.

Further changes in the Procurement Department were implemented to further professionalise the service to the internal customer and prepare for the forthcoming complex procurements relating to the E-ELT. The supplier database was improved, general conditions and standard documents were updated. Many industry events, workshops and training procedure, improving both the budget Safety throughout the year (e.g., E-ELT, sessions were conducted during the year. and resource planning processes. The ALMA, MUSE, SPHERE, AOF-DSM), implementation of a new fully integrated including appropriate safety and con- The preliminary inquiry phase for the recruitment portal was realised and the formity-related responsibilities in the dome and main structure for the E-ELT switch to the Single Euro Payments Area programme and project management was completed and the full procurement (SEPA) payment-integration initiative was documentation. for the construction of the road to Arma- completed. zones and the topping of the mountain The Chile office was successful in selling were carried out. This contract was Safety was much involved in giving a plot of land in Antofagasta and has signed on 9 December in Santiago de advice for the ESO Headquarters exten- already made contacts to sell the proper- Chile with the company ICAFAL Ingeniería sion buildings and will also provide rec- ty in La Serena. Both properties are y Construcción S.A. ommendations for new construction pro- unused and the sales are contributing to jects (ESO Supernova and the ALMA a better cash flow. The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Residence). Regular safety inspections team implemented a new resource also led to continuous improvements in On the occasion of 50 years of ESO in planning tool allowing project managers the existing building. Chile, the General Services in Vitacura to enter their human resource requests, organised a celebration for staff and their which are subsequently allocated by the An increasing number of scientific and families on 30 October. functional managers. This is an ongoing engineering projects solicited input from

ESO Annual Report 2013 73 Finance and Budget

Financial Statements 2013

Accounting Statements 2013 (in € 1000)

Statement of Financial Position 31.12.2013 31.12.2012 Cash Flow Statement 2013 2012

Assets Cash Flow Cash and cash equivalents 4 208 6 342 Net receipts 162 805 166 154 Inventories, receivables, advances and other 25 279 34 313 Net payments – 171 937 – 190 964 current assets Net cash flow from operating activities –9132 –24 810 Non-current assets 1058 053 1047302 Total Assets 1087 540 1087957 Net cash flow from financing activities 7000 13000

Liabilities Net Cash Flow = –2132 –11 810 Short-term borrowing 20000 13 002 Net Decrease in Cash and Cash Equivalents Payables, advances received and other 54 057 62 257 current liabilities Non-current liabilities 306 374 394756 Total Liabilities 380 431 470 015

Accumulated surpluses/deficits 660 310 681035 Pension fund loss/gain 65 571 –2 998 Other changes in net assets – –39 058 Net surplus/ deficit for the year – 18 772 –21037 Total Net Assets 707109 617 942

Total Liabilities and Net Assets 1 087 540 1087957

Statement of 01.01.– 01.01.– Financial Performance 31.12.2013 31.12.2012

Operating Revenue Contributions from Member States 143 668 132 690 Contributions to special projects 6 226 17 299 In kind contributions 1 313 1 313 Sales and service charges 3 432 3808 Other revenue 611 530 Total Operating Revenue 155 250 155 640

Operating Expenses Installations and equipment 3 858 5 594 Supplies and services 44 246 54 805 Personnel expenses 74 492 78 527 Depreciation of fixed assets 53 955 43 087 Other operating expenses 844 459 Total Operating Expenses 177 395 182 472

Net surplus/deficit from operating activities –22145 –26 832

Financial revenue 2 490 1506 Financial expenses 1270 1297 Net surplus/deficit from financial activities 1220 209

Non periodic and extraordinary revenue 3 192 5 586 Non periodic and extraordinary expenses 1039 – Net surplus (deficit) from non periodic and 2 153 5 586 extraordinary activties

Net Surplus/Deficit for the Period – 18 772 –21 037

74 ESO Annual Report 2013 Budgetary Reports 2013 Budget for 2014 (in € 1000) (in € 1000)

Income Budget Budget Actual Income Budget 2014 Contributions from Member States 136 902 147 878 Contributions from Member States 165 672 Income from third parties and advances received 13 091 7699 Income from third parties 10 437 Other income 2964 4 194 Other income 1 325 Consolidated entities 827 717 Consolidated entities 620 Total Income Budget 153 784 160 488 Total Income Budget (approved) 178 054 Conditional Income E-ELT (from Brazil and Spain) 67 380 Payment Budget Total Income Budget incl. Conditional Income 245434 Programme 84 177 63 978 Technical infrastructure and production 7806 7 347 Payment Budget 2014 Operations 73 567 67 250 Programme 59 913 Science support 9 017 8 070 Technical infrastructure and production 7 828 General activities 27284 24 422 Operations 71 652 Predicted payment delays –5000 – Science support 8 454 Financing cost 179 164 General activities 26 288 Consolidated entities 649 599 Financing cost 124 Total Payment Budget 197 679 171 830 Consolidated entities 697 Total Payment Budget 174 956

The External Auditors, Tribunal de Contas The net assets of the Organisation at The 2014 approved income budget de Portugal*, have expressed their opin- 31 December 2013 amount to 707.1 mil- amounts to 178.1 million euro. It includes ion that the financial statements for 2013 lion euro. the regular contributions from the ESO give a true and fair view of the affairs of European Member States, income from the Organisation. The negative cash flow from operating third parties and partners and other activities of –9.1 million euro in 2013 income including additional income for The accounting statements for 2013 reflects the planned excess of payments the E-ELT from all Member States having show a negative result of –18.8 million over received income during the financial agreed to participate in the project. euro. It is composed of a negative result year. The main payments were for ALMA Conditional income for the E-ELT from from operating activities of –22.2 million construction and for the Headquarters Spain and Brazil adds up to 67.4 million euro, principally arising from the increase extension building. To cover financing euro resulting in a total expected income in the provision for retirement benefits at needs, short-term borrowing of 20 million budget of 245.4 million euro subject to the closing date, following the outcome of euro vs. 13 million euro at 31 December the participation of Spain and the full the actuarial study of the shared CERN/ 2012 was taken up, resulting in an overall ratification of the Accession Agreement ESO Pension Fund at 31 December 2013. cash flow of –2.1 million euro. The cash by Brazil during the course of the year. It was partly compensated for by a sur- position at 31 December 2013 was plus from financial activities of +1.2 mil- 4.2 million euro. All borrowing will be paid lion euro as well as a positive impact from back by the end of April 2014. non-periodic activities of +2.2 million euro. However, the budgetary outturn The budget for 2014 was approved by shows a positive development. More the ESO Council in December 2013. The income than planned was received, approved 2014 payment budget amounts mainly due to contributions for the E-ELT. to 175.0 million euros. It covers commit- Expenditure was below budgeted level ments for the current VLT/VLTI instrumen- resulting in substantial savings. tation programme and ALMA construc- * Antonio José Avérous Mira Crespo (Member of tion as well as a budget provision of the Portuguese Court of Auditors), Maria da Luz 25.0 million euros for E-ELT construction Carmezim (Head of Audit Department), Antonio activities. A.F.B. Pombeiro (Senior Auditor), Mr. Nuno Martins Lopes (Auditor) and Ms. Filomena Maria de Oliveira Rolo (Auditor).

ESO Annual Report 2013 75 Reaching out to the stars at Paranal.

76 ESO Annual Report 2013 ESO/B. Tafreshi (twanight.org) Tafreshi ESO/B.

ESO Annual Report 2013 77 Human Resources The Human Resources department (HR) objectives and training requirements; but finally started in July. ESO Manage- deals with all services provided to and ment presented a first overview on the employees in connection with their – clarification of the underperformance current status and results to the Tripartite employment at ESO, starting from the management process. Group in October. During the previous definition of applicable policies to the Finance Committee meeting, ESO Man- conclusion and execution of employment agement suggested setting up a Working contracts. Within this scope, HR deals Competency framework Group for the ESO Regular Review. It will with the following tasks: comprise members from the Tripartite – planning and definition of personnel ESO’s existing competency framework Group, the International Staff Committee resources policy and strategy; was reworked by an external consultant, and HR. A first report is expected in – recruitment and selection procedures; a group of nine staff members and HR 2014. – support to employees regarding the advisors. The revised competency frame- implementation of applicable rules and work was reviewed by two further work- regulations; ing groups in Garching and Chile, facili- Contract policy – occupational health and welfare; tated by members of HR. It has been – social security; developed in line with ESO’s mission and ESO Management reviewed the current – training and professional development; values and serves as a reference docu- contract policy for International Staff and ment that aims to provide direction and Members in order to cope with the mid- – family matters for staff, including day- consistency across all functions at ESO. and long-term requirements of the organ- care and the European School. The amended framework is focussed on isation. It took into account the new behaviours and is designed to be used in matrix structure, demographic impact, the areas of recruitment, performance and the ratio of fixed and indefinite con- HR strategy policy and planning management, change management, 360° tracts and also compared it with other feedback as well as learning and devel- intergovernmental organisations. Council Performance management opment. approved the amended contract policy at its meeting in December to become A new performance management and effective as of 1 January 2014. professional development model and Flexible working time process have been developed. The management team approved the draft con- As a result of the staff engagement sur- Recruitment portal cept and oversaw a validation that took vey, ESO Management has decided place through the Staff Association and to introduce flexible working hours for An improved ESO recruitment portal was unions, as well as through various work- staff with duty stations in Garching or implemented in June. It is more user- ing groups in Garching and Chile. The Vitacura. The goals are both to improve friendly and provides a better service for new process was finalised by the end of the work–life balance of staff and to har- internal and external applicants, such July and was applied on a trial basis to monise the existing individual, depart- as a direct upload of recommendation the Performance Review this year. At the mental, or divisional working time require- letters. beginning of 2014, its results will be ments around the core hours. The reviewed and the finalised circular and guidelines were applied on a trial basis guide will be presented to the governing for twelve months and a first review will Internal vacancies bodies. During its meeting in September, take place in February 2014. the Standing Advisory Committee wel- In order to facilitate internal job rotations, comed the significant effort made by ESO the ESO Management introduced internal Management to improve this process. Code of Conduct vacancy notices. If a position is still HR advisors ran training sessions in Sep- vacant after two weeks, it will be pub- tember and October to train staff and HR introduced the ESO Code of Conduct lished on the HR webpage for external managers on the following in particular: document, which will help to ensure a applicants. The possibility for direct reas- – process alignment with the ESO Way shared appreciation of ESO’s values and signment is not affected by this measure. and the matrix reorganisation; their influence on the way we work with – improved and clearer links to the learn- mutual respect. HR advisors presented it ing and development process, the within the framework of the ESO Way to Project-oriented matrix management ESO competency framework, career all departments. paths and the advancement process; Following the staffing review in 2011, a – revision of general performance criteria project-oriented matrix management and overall performance assessment Regular review — conditions of employ- scheme was implemented in June 2013 and ratings; ment to deploy staff efficiently and to meet the – written input to their appraisal by the evolving demands of ESO. This restruc- corresponding feedback provider for The start of the five-yearly review of the turing, including the definition of roles and matrixed staff members, including conditions of employment was delayed, responsibilities of functional and project

ESO Annual Report 2013 79 managers, was developed in workshops Distribution of Interna- Spain Finland with an external consultant and involved tional Staff Members by 5.5% 0.2% nationality — 31 Decem- around 80 staff members from all depart- ber 2013. ments across the organisation. HR Denmark France 1.9 % 16.0 % designed a communication plan for reassignments and updated all relevant Germany United documents and policies. 29.2% Kingdom 9.6% Switzerland 1.0 % Italy Recruitment, selection and reassign- 16.5 % ment Belgium The Netherlands 3.3% 4.1 %

During the year, 17 vacancy notices were Austria Portugal published, prompting a total of 825 appli- 1.2 % 0.7 % cations. The numbers for recruitment Other Sweden campaigns completed according to the 9.8% 1.0 % contract type were as follows:

Contract Type No. of No. of consistent follow-up. Based on a ques- In three meetings, the Tripartite Group Campaigns Applications tionnaire, 451 members of personnel dealt mainly with the developments of Staff Members 13 433 gave feedback to 39 middle managers. the CERN Pension Fund and the Staff Local Staff Members 3 166 External coaches helped these managers Regulations, the annual review of remu- Fellows 1 226 to understand their feedback reports and neration and allowances, salary adjust- commence a reflection process, which ments, the results of the engagement should lead to individual development survey and staff policies. All positions were advertised on the plans that are followed up in close inter- ESO website. For international positions, action with HR and the line managers. notifications were sent to all members Health and welfare and social security of Council, the Finance Committee and the delegates of other ESO committees, Employee relations and communica- Amended definition of the ESO Reference as well as to national and international tions Salary within the CERN Pension Fund research centres and observatories. In addition, prominent advertisements for HR continued to have regular discussions This new pension scheme applies to Staff selected positions were placed in appro- with the International Staff Committee Members and Fellows starting on 1 Janu- priate specialist publications and on and the unions in Chile in the areas of ary 2014 or later and is in particular recruitment web pages. organisational development, policy based on the following parameters: amendments, regulations, health working – contributions and benefits continue to Within the ESO Fellowship Programme, group and training actions. be paid in Swiss francs (CHF); six applicants were selected with duty – contributions are based on actual ESO station in Chile and six for Garching. In the course of the year, one Rehabilita- salaries converted into CHF at market Furthermore, nine candidates were tion Board examined a case concerning rate; awarded a Studentship in Europe and incapacity, illness and procedural actions – retirement pensions are based on the five candidates in Chile. and two Advisory Appeal Boards were final reference salary using the average appointed and their substantiated recom- exchange rate over the career. In addition, 19 members of personnel mendations were followed by the Director were reassigned internally. General. In close collaboration with the representatives of the CERN management, CERN Legal Services and the CERN Pension Learning and professional development Collaboration and representation of HR Fund Governing Board as well as with the representatives of staff, ESO Manage- 360° feedback reviews In monthly meetings of the ALMA Human ment has amended correspondingly its Resources Advisory Group, HR gave Staff Regulations and the Agreement The main objective of implementing a advice on union matters and staff transi- between CERN and ESO. At its meeting 360° feedback review is to help manag- tions from construction to operation. It on 4 and 5 December, Council approved ers reflect in a structured way on their also advised on the appointments of the amended Staff Regulations and the leadership style, to identify strengths and managers and in the development of poli- “Agreement between CERN and ESO weaknesses, and to define development cies and procedures. concerning the admission of ESO staff to plans where there are deficits, including a the CERN Pension Fund”.

80 ESO Annual Report 2013 Health insurance

The health insurance scheme was adjust- ed according to the requirements of medical coverage and the developments in health care in the Member States.

Staff departure

Staff departures this year fall into the following categories:

Reasons Staff Member Local Staff Member Resignation 11 4 Expiry of contract 4 0 Retirement 2 2 Mutual agreement 2 1 Death 0 1 Total 19 8

Astronomers coming back from a long observing night at the Paranal Observatory. This picture

captured them at the entrance to the Residencia. ESO/Y.Beletsky List of Staff

As of 31 December 2013

Director General

Tim de Zeeuw

Directorate of Directorate of Administration Engineering Director General Support Patrick Geeraert Michèle Péron

Laura Comendador Patricia Adriazola José Antonio Abad Vincenzo Forchi Samuel Lévêque Rodrigo Javier Tobar Frutos Andrés Oldemar Arias Roberto Abuter Robert Frahm Steffan Lewis Carrizo Fernando Comerón Angela Arndt Matteo Accardo Christoph Frank Paul Lilley Mirko Todorović Gabriela Gajardo Katalin Baltayne Eric Allaert Armin Gabasch Jean-Louis Lizon à Sebastien Tordo Nikolaj Gube Korompay Emmanuel Aller Fernando Gago L’A l l e m a n d Stefano Turolla Priya Nirmala Hein Nikolaus Barnes Carpentier César Enrique García John Lockhart Gerhard Ullmann Isolde Kreutle Roland Block Domingo Álvarez Dabó Simon Lowery Arno Van Kesteren Elena Llopis Liske Jean-Michel Bonneau Mendez Aurea Garcia Rissmann Christian Lucuix Elise Vernet Claus Madsen Renate Brunner Paola Amico Daniel Gaytan Lars Kristian Lundin Jakob Vinther Enikő Patkós Marcela Campos Luigi Andolfato Christoph Geimer Pierre-Yves Madec Rein Warmels Douglas Pierce-Price Karina Celedon Javier Argomedo Rodrigo Gesswein Antonio Ramón Andrew Wright Jasna Razmilic Claudia Silvina Cerda Gerardo Ávila Paolo Ghiretti Manescau Hernández Michèle Zamparelli Diego Rioseco Mercedes Chacoff Andrea Balestra Bruno Gilli Alisdair Manning Stefano Zampieri Jane Wallace Amal Daire Pascal Ballester Percy Glaves Massimiliano Marchesi Alain Delorme David Bargna Andreas Glindemann Enrico Marchetti Robert Fosbury Evelina Dietmann Pablo José Barriga Domingo Gojak Juan Antonio Marrero (Emeritus Astronomer) Andrea Dinkel Campino Juan Carlos González Hernández Sabine Eisenbraun Thomas Bierwirth Herrera Stewart McLay Willem Eng Domenico Bonaccini Justo Antonio González Leander H. Mehrgan Alain Gilliotte Calia Villalba Serge Menardi Rebonto Guha Henri Bonnet Thomas Grudzien Samantha Milligan Leonardo Guzman Reynald Bourtembourg Ivan Maria Guidolin Andrea Modigliani Robert Hamilton Roland Brast Carlos Guirao Sanchez Christophe Moins Christoph Haupt Martin Brinkmann Ronald Guzman Michael Müller Charlotte Hermant Paul Bristow Collazos John Murray Georg Junker Iris Bronnert Wolfgang Hackenberg Michael Naumann Nathalie Kastelyn Enzo Brunetto Andreas Haimerl Lothar Noethe Katarina Kiupel Bernard Buzzoni Peter Hammersley Ralf Palsa Katjuscha Lockhart Blanca Camucet Jochen Haucke Moreno Pasquato Ignacio Lopez Gil Alessandro Caproni Florian Heissenhuber Jérôme Paufique Rodrigo Lorca Sandra María Castro Guy Hess Marcus Pavez Qiao Yun Ma Cecilia Cerón Renate Hinterschuster Martine Peltzer Maria Madrazo Alberto Maurizio Chavan Ronald Holzlöhner Lorenzo Pettazzi Alessandro Martis Gianluca Chiozzi Georgette Hubert Thomas Pfrommer Anna Michaleli Emanuela Ciattaglia Norbert Hubin Duc Thanh Phan María Angélica Moya Mauro Comin Evi Hummel Werther Pirani Christian Muckle Livio Condorelli Derek James Ives Cristian Pontoni Hélène Neuville Ralf Dieter Conzelmann Olaf Iwert Dan Popovic Claudia Ober Paula Cristina Correia Gerd Jakob Eszter Pozna Ester Oliveras dos Santos Bogdan Jeram Marco Quattri Ernesto Orrego Claudio Cumani Paul Jolley Jutta Quentin Betül Özener Sebastian Deiries Andreas Jost Andrew Rakich Thomas Penker Klaas Johannes Dekker Yves Jung Roland Reiss Florence Perrault Bernard-Alexis Delabre Dimitrios Kalaitzoglou Javier Reyes Leonel Pizarro Françoise Robert Karban Robert Ridings Mauricio Quintana Delplancke-Ströbele Markus Kasper Jesús Rodríguez Ulloa Fabian Reckmann Nicola Di Lieto Lothar Kern Silvio Rossi Mario Riedel Canio Dichirico Mario Kiekebusch Stefan Sandrock Jürgen Riesel Philippe Dierickx Jean Paul Kirchbauer Marc Sarazin Rosa Ivonne Riveros Martin Dimmler Barbara Klein Marcus Schilling Francky Rombout Robert Donaldson Maurice klein Gebbinck Christian Schmid Elke Rose Dario Dorigo Jens Knudstrup Dominik Schneller Marcia Saavedra Reinhold Dorn Franz Koch Babak Sedghi Nadja Sababa Mark Desmond Johann Kolb Paola Sivera Johannes Downing Maximilian Kraus Fabio Sogni Schimpelsberger Michel Duchateau Basilio Kublik Heiko Andreas Sommer Heidi Schmidt Philippe Duhoux Hervé Kurlandczyk Christian Sönke Maria Soledad Silva Christophe Dupuy Paolo La Penna Jörg Stegmeier Erich Siml Toomas Erm Uwe Lange Stefan Ströbele Roswitha Slater Michael Esselborn Miska Le Louarn Marcos Suárez Valles Alexandra Specht Enrico Fedrigo Dieter Suchar Albert Triat Sylvie Feyrin Roberto Tamai Arnoldus Gregorius Gert Finger Helmut Tischer Tromp Gerhard Fischer Lone Vedsø Marschollek Maritza Vicencio Michael Weigand

82 ESO Annual Report 2013 Joint ALMA Directorate of Directorate of Observatory Operations Programmes

Pierre Cox Andreas Kaufer Adrian Russell

Andreas Andersson Sergio Abadie Erito Flores Francisco Miguel Peter Sinclaire Robin Arsenault Lundgren Margarita Acuña Juan Carlos Fluxa Montenegro-Montes Nicolas Slusarenko Fabio Biancat Marchet Denis Barkats Claudio Agurto Nathalie Fourniol Alex Morales Alain Smette Claudio Cabrera Paulina Bocaz Bernardo Ahumada Wolfram Freudling Sebastien Morel Gerardo Smith Mark Casali Itziar De Gregorio Yazan Al Momany Eloy Fuenteseca Iván Muñoz Jonathan Smoker Marc Cayrel Monsalvo Javier Alarcón Dimitri Gadotti Sangeeta Mysore Christian Spille Frédéric Derie William Dent Jaime Alonso Sergio Gaete Julio Navarrete Thomas Stanke Roberto Gilmozzi Giorgio Filippi José Luis Álvarez Julien H. V. Girard Mark Neeser Michael Fritz Sterzik Peter Murray Gray Diego Alex García Nicolás Álvarez Philippe Gitton Nadine Neumayer Felix Stoehr Serge Guniat Tracey Hill Paola Andreani Frederic Yves Joseph Hernan Nievas Sandra Strunk Volker Heinz Jorge Ibsen Iván Aranda Gonte Francisco Olivares Thomas Szeifert Lieselotte Jochum Henderikus Jager Juan Pablo Araneda Andrés González Rodrigo Olivares Lowell Tacconi-Garman Florian Kerber Rüdiger Kneissl Pablo Arias Edouard González Jared O’Neal Richard Tamblay Bertrand Koehler Stéphane Leon Tanne Oriel Alberto Arriagada Jaime González Juan Osorio Gie Han Tan Nicholas Charles Gianni Marconi Karla Aubel Javier Andrés González Juan Carlos Palacio Mario Tapia Kornweibel Gautier Mathys Francisco Azagra Leonardo González Laurent Pallanca Manuel Torres Pascal Martínez Maurizio Miccolis José Baez Sergio González Ricardo Nelson Parra Eugenio Ureta Alistair McPherson Theodoros Nakos Pedro Baksai Patricia Guajardo Rodrigo Javier Parra Josefina Urrutia Katia Montironi Lars-Åke Nyman Rogelio Bascunan Carlos Guerra Andrés Parraguez Guillermo Valdes Luca Pasquini José Parra Giacomo Beccari Stéphane Guisard Diego Parraguez Elena Valenti Jean-François Pirard Evert Pauwels Angelika Beller Jonas Haase Ferdinand Patt Jose Javier Valenzuela Gero Rupprecht Neil Matthew Phillips Juan Beltran Juan Pablo Haddad Eduardo Peña Karen Vallejo Valérie Saint-Hilaire David Rabanus Andrew Biggs Nicolas Haddad Isabelle Percheron Mario Van Den Ancker Stefano Stanghellini Armin Silber Guillaume Blanchard Pierre Haguenauer Monika Petr-Gotzens Eelco van Kampen Josef Strasser Giorgio Siringo Israel Blanchard Reinhard Hanuschik Dirk Petry Pierre Vanderheyden Donald Tait Russell Smeback Henri Boffin Evanthia Hatziminaoglou Jorge Pilquinao Paulina Venegas Gianluca Verzichelli Stanislav Stefl Carlos Bolados George Hau Juan Pineda Enrique Vera Wolfgang Wild Baltasar Vila Vilaro Pierre Bourget Pieter Hekman Andres Pino Sergio Vera Eric Villard Stéphane Brillant Juan Pablo Henriquez Aldo Pizarro Ignacio Vera Sequeiros Catherine Vlahakis Erich Bugueno Cristian Herrera Emanuela Pompei Jorge Vilaza Nicholas Whyborn Francisco Caceres Michael Hilker Sébastien Poupar Zahed Wahhaj Gert Tommy Wiklind Luis Alejandro Gerhard Hüdepohl Matteo Pozzobon Jeremy Walsh Caniguante Rodrigo Huerta Francesca Primas Ueli Weilenmann Michael Cantzler Christian Hummel John Pritchard Luis Wendegass Rubén Cárcamo Wolfgang Hummel Andrés Ramírez Markus Wittkowski César Cárdenas Elizabeth Humphreys Christian Ramírez Burkhard Wolff Mauricio Cárdenas Valentin Ivanov Suzanna Randall Pavel Yagoubov Arnaud Carlier Nestor Jiménez Claudio Reinero Véronique Ziegler Giovanni Carraro Petr Kabath Marina Rejkuba Elena Zuffanelli Duncan Castex Ismo Kastinen Sridharan Rengaswamy Martin A. Zwaan Mónica Castillo Thomas Klein Jörg Retzlaff Roberto Castillo Carlos La Fuente Claudia Reyes Susana Cerda Francisco Labraña Miguel Riquelme Stella-Maria Robert Alexander Laing Leonel Rivas Chasiotis-Klingner Octavio Lavin Thomas Rivinius Claudia Cid Cédric Ledoux Chester Rojas Alex Correa Alfredo Leiva Pascual Rojas Alejandra Cortés Marcelo Lopez Martino Romaniello Carlos De Breuck Fernando Luco Cristian Romero Willem-Jan de Wit Felipe Mac-Auliffe Rodrigo Romero Diego Del Valle Vincenzo Mainieri Felix Alberto Rozas Nausicaa Delmotte Pedro Mardones Francisco G. Ruseler Álvaro Díaz Kiriako Markar Fernando Salgado María Díaz Trigo Christophe Martayan Ariel Sanchez Danuta Dobrzycka Stéphane Marteau Pierre Sansgasset Adam Dobrzycki Mauricio Martínez Jorge Santana Reinaldo Donoso Eduardo Matamoros Ivo Saviane Javier Duk Dimitri Mawet Erich Schmid Christophe Dumas Angel Mellado Linda Schmidtobreick Michael Dumke Alejandra Mena Ricardo Schmutzer Carlos Duran Antoine Mérand Nicolas Schuhler Cristian Elao Alberto Micol Frédéric Schuller Cristian Esparza Steffen Mieske Alex Segovia Lorena Faundez Sabine Möhler Fernando Selman José Figueroa Palle Møller Waldo Siclari Lorenzo Monaco

ESO Annual Report 2013 83 Directorate for Science

Bruno Leibundgut

Rebeca Aladro Jason Harley Grunhut Francesco Gabriele Susana Almagro Garcia Adrien Guerou Saturni Julian David Alvarado Sylvain Guieu Tullia Sbarrato Gomez Bitten Gullberg Markus Schöller Joseph Anderson Lizette Guzman Raquel Yumi Shida Mathias André Olivier Hainaut Matthew Shultz Manuel Aravena Richard Hook Ralf Siebenmorgen Armando Arellano Ferro Renate Elisabeth Hoppe Anna Sippel Dietrich Baade Bernd Husemann Rowena Sirey Carlos Eduardo Gaitee Hussain Jason Spyromilio Barbosa Laura Inno Christina Stoffer Juan Carlos Beamin Edmund Janssen Marco Tazzari Jean-Philippe Berger Izaskun Maite Jiménez Leonardo Testi Matthieu Bethermin Serra Svea Teupke Margherita Bonzini Paulina Jirón Grant Tremblay Jutta Boxheimer David Jones Sergio Vasquez Joanne Breitfelder Hans-Ulrich Käufl Laura Ventura Pamela Bristow Markus Kissler-Patig Joël Daniel Roger Lars Lindberg Martin Kornmesser Vernet Christensen Jens-Kristian Krogager Karina Theresia Voggel Silvia Cristiani Thomas Krühler Maja Vuckovic Joana Mafalda da Cruz Mirko Krumpe Ke Wang Carmo Martins Harald Kuntschner Yue Wang Timothy Davis Claudia del Pilar Lagos Roger Wesson Jozua de Boer Urbina Julien Woillez Claudio De Figueiredo Jochen Liske Dominika Wylezalek Melo Gaspare Lo Curto Fei Yan Marco De Pascale Gianluca Lombardi Bin Yang Romain Deschamps MD Golam Mafuz Tayyaba Zafar Suhail Dhawan Kate Louise Maguire Herbert Zodet Catrina Diener Carlo Felice Maria Paul Elliott Manara Thijs de Graauw Eric Emsellem Michaël Marsset (Emeritus Astronomer) Steve Ertel Anna Faye Mc Leod Sandro D’Odorico Anja Feldmeier Silvia Meakins (Emeritus Astronomer) Roberto José Figuera Andrea Mehner Massimo Tarenghi Jaimes Jorge Melnick (Emeritus Astronomer) Maud Muriel Galametz Julien Milli Elisabeth Gall André Müller Roberto Galván-Madrid Juan Carlos Hernan Garrido Muñoz-Mateos Stephan Geier Koraljka Muzic Neale Gibson Florian Niederhofer Adam Ginsburg Paolo Padovani María Eugenia Gómez Ferdinando Patat Luis Goncalves Calçada Joel Leslie Pfeffer Oscar A. González Farid Rahoui Rebekka Grellmann Suzanne Ramsay Uta Grothkopf Javier Adrián Rodón Myriam Rodrigues Francisco Rodríguez Paula Valentina Rodríguez Joel Sánchez

This VLT image reveals two glowing clouds of gas. NGC 2014 (right) is irregularly shaped and red, while its neighbour, NGC 2020, is round and blue. These odd and very different forms were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly.

84 ESO Annual Report 2013

Organigram

As of 31 December 2013 Director General Tim de Zeeuw DG Cabinet Ofﬁce of Representation Internal Laura Comendador in Chile Auditor Frutos Fernando Comerón Elena Llopis Liske

Directorate of Directorate of Directorate of Directorate of Directorate for Administration Engineering Programmes Operations Science Patrick Geeraert Michèle Péron Adrian Russell Andreas Kaufer Bruno Leibundgut

Mechanical & Data Contracts and IT Division ALMA La Silla Paranal European ALMA Instrument Adaptive Optics Cryogenic Management Procurement Michèle Péron Programme Observatory Support Centre Science Norbert Hubin Engineering & Operations Arnout Tromp (Acting Head) Wolfgang Wild Andreas Kaufer Wolfgang Wild Dietrich Baade Paul Jolley Michael Sterzik

Facility, Control & Central Strategy E-ELT Observing Optics & ALMA Regional ALMA Logistics, Instrument & Governance Programme APEX Programmes Photonics Centre Computing Transport Software Florian Alistair Thomas Klein Ofﬁce Lothar Noethe Paola Andreani Erich Schmid Erich Siml Jochen Haucke Heissenhuber McPherson Ferdinando Patat

Central Service Back-end Control Pipeline Instrumentation Engineering ALMA Technical Outreach Finance Desk & Operations Engineering Systems Programme Paranal Support Lars Lindberg Renate Brunner Procurement Martino Toomas Erm Pascal Ballester Mark Casali Arnaud Carlier N. N. Percy Glaves Romaniello Christensen

Data Flow Technology Ofﬁce for Human Software Local IT User Support Infrastructure Development La Silla Science Resources Engineering Garching Francesca Thomas Programme Ivo Saviane Garching Roland Block Jochen Haucke Dieter Suchar Primas Bierwirth Mark Casali Eric Emsellem

Infrastructure Structure & Project Logistics and Ofﬁce for Detector Local IT Chile Systems Management Facilities Paranal Science Chile Systems Chile Jean-Michel Analysis Fabio Biancat Francisco Claudio De Gert Finger Andrew Wright Bonneau Franz Koch Marchet Ruseler Figueiredo Melo

Electronic System Maintenance Engineering Engineering Paranal Christian Lucuix Philippe Dierickx N. N.

Science Instrument VLTI Operations Systems Françoise Paranal Andreas Delplancke- Christophe Glindemann Ströbele Dumas

At the edge of the hot, dry Atacama Desert, a hardy South American grey fox has just awoken. In the background, the white dome houses the Swiss 1.2-metre Leonhard Euler Telescope.

86 ESO Annual Report 2013 ESO/M. Tewes

ESO Annual Report 2013 87 Director General Support

ALMA was inaugurated at an official ceremony, mark- ing the completion of all the major systems of the giant telescope and the formal transition from a construction project to a fully fledged observatory. In the picture, some of the guests attending the inauguration ceremony are shown on one of the huge ALMA transporters. From left to right: Tim de Zeeuw, ESO Direc- tor General, the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, the director of the USA’s National Science Foundation Subra Suresh, the director of ALMA Thijs de Graauw, and the Senior Vice Minister of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Teru Fukui.

88 ESO Annual Report 2013 In mid-March the Office of the Director General was reorganised into three departments: the Cabinet of the Director General, the Office for the ESO Repre- sentation in Chile and the Internal Audit Office. Furthermore, the Director General is supported by a personal assistant.

The purpose of creating the Cabinet as a distinct unit was to bring together a number of expert areas that are necessary to ensure ESO’s function as an intergovernmental organisation, but — because of their horizontal and “non-technical” character — were not covered within the structure of the Directorates. These include the areas of Legal and Interna- tional Affairs, Corporate Risks and Intel- lectual Property Management, Internal Communication, Council Secretariat and Cabinet Office and Protocol. Within these areas of expertise, the Cabinet supports the ESO Council and Finance Committee as well as the Director General and the The Chilean President, Sebastián Piñera, visits ESO Management Team, as appropriate, Paranal to hand over the deeds for the transfer of the land for the E-ELT. in the development and implementation of ESO’s overall strategy. The signing of the contract to build the road and flatten the summit Legal affairs for the E-ELT.

Beyond the recurring tasks of assisting in the preparation of Council and Finance Committee documents and participation in meetings of the Council, Finance Com- mittee and other ESO Committees or Working Groups, considerable efforts were put into supporting the development of new pension provisions for future employees and a re-determination of the reference salary to calculate pension contributions and benefits. This coincid- ed with a re-negotiation of the CERN– ESO Agreement on the admission of ESO and in day-to-day legal issues that arose tion site regulations, including environ- Staff to the CERN Pension Fund. in Chile. In particular, legal advice was mental and safety matters. given during the collective bargaining Another major topic this year was the process with the ALMA Local Staff Union. An important area of work is the provision negotiation and drafting of a new Tri of assistance to the ESO Representation lateral Agreement concerning ALMA with As the E-ELT project steadily moved for- in Chile in all legal matters, and in par- the partners in North America and East ward, the Cabinet closely monitored the ticular those concerning immunity issues Asia, a task led by ESO. The draft was remaining steps of the administrative pro- and the legal status of ESO in Chile. Mat- presented to the Committee of Council in cess by the Chilean authorities to finalise ters addressed ranged from cases of ille- October for comments. Following some the donation/concession of the land for gal mining activity, environmental further iterations, a close-to-final version the E-ELT. With construction activities set aspects, the power supply to La Silla and was produced with the aim of having it to commence in 2014, the Cabinet sup- the E-ELT to questions concerning the approved and signed during 2014. Mem- ported the Project Office and the Con- special relationship of Chile with ESO. bers of the Cabinet also assisted in the tracts and Procurement Department in follow-up of issues concerning the ALMA the preparation of the call for tenders for The construction work for the extension Board and the ALMA Directors Council major E-ELT contracts and the construc- to the ESO Headquarters extension was

ESO Annual Report 2013 89 completed and the building was handed A unified system for ESO-wide news Risk and intellectual property manage- over to ESO by the construction company was created, in the form of a channel for ment, EU contracts in December. The Cabinet worked in internal announcements on the ESO close collaboration with the Project Office intranet. The Internal Communication ESO reached several important milestones and Administration to settle any remaining Office coordinates the system, advises in corporate risk management activities legal and administrative issues in prepara- on announcement topics and contents, during the year. The Cabinet leads and tion for closing the contracts with the and helps edit texts. These appear on coordinates the regular update of the ESO construction company and the architects. the intranet in a searchable archive, and Corporate Risk Register in order to pro- are collected in a weekly e-mail news vide support to the senior management The Cabinet supported the Directorate of letter that is distributed to all staff. This for strategic decisions. It also provides Administration, and the Human Resourc- consolidation has reduced the overall use strategic risk assessment for specific pro- es and Contracts and Procurement of mass e-mails to staff. The system was jects and programmes on request. ESO’s Departments in particular, in various mat- launched at the end of June, and a total first formal ESO Data Classification Policy ters and, inter alia, helped with internal of 177 internal announcements (some- was published in July. It defines the gen appeals and complaints before the what more than one per working day) had eral classification scheme for all data in Administrative Tribunal of the International been published by the end of the year. the possession of ESO in order to provide Labour Organisation, the update and consistency regarding access, handling review of the Staff Rules and Regulations, The internal news channel is used for and disclosure of data. This provides internal memoranda and administrative general news, announcements from the necessary security required by the circulars as well as with the update of the Human Resources, or notices of meet- respective data. Since the publication of General Conditions of ESO Contracts and ings and events. In addition, there is a the policy, considerable effort has been Purchase Orders. concerted effort to include information devoted to the implementation of the that might not have been previously com- policy by providing training and support ESO is in the process of setting up a new municated widely, such as news about for ESO departments. software asset management structure projects passing significant milestones, under the leadership of the Information staff arrivals, departures, and reassign- To support the ESO Management in case Technology Division. Since its inception, ments, congratulations to PhD students of a corporate crisis, the first operational the Cabinet has been supporting this on passing their vivas, and more rapid continuity plan for the Garching and effort using its expertise in the legal updates on topics such as the ratification Santiago premises was published in Sep- aspects of software licenses and license process of Brazil’s ESO membership tember. As part of ESO’s now integrated management. and the strike by Joint ALMA Observatory risk management practices, the Organisa- local staff. tion signed a contract for insurance bro- Members of the Cabinet assisted in the kerage services for all non-life insurances negotiations and drafting of various A series of Coffee with the Director with one of the leading broker companies. agreements, regarding, for example, the General events was started. These were By the end of the year, ESO had revised its transfer of the ALMA prototype antenna designed to complement the all-hands insurance programme and concluded a to a national institute for future use, the meetings by offering staff an additional new structure and portfolio of insurance hosting and operations of a telescope opportunity to ask questions and give policies, allowing the ESO Management to ensemble on Paranal and the extension feedback, in a smaller and less formal set up a new balance between risk trans- of the use of telescopes at La Silla by setting, on any topics they wished. These fer and self-insurance. The Cabinet is national institutes. have taken place at the Garching Head- responsible for the management of the quarters as well as at Paranal and in the new portfolio, in close collaboration with Vitacura office. the Directorate of Administration. Internal Communication To improve the flow of information Similarly, the Cabinet is responsible for The Internal Communication Office was between people across ESO, a new pro- ensuring that ESO complies with US set up as part of the Cabinet to strengthen gramme of informal and non-technical International Traffic in Arms Regulations and coordinate internal communication talks was set up. These talks, under the (ITAR) regulations and with the restric- across ESO. This is the first time that series title “What ESO really does”, aim to tions arising from UN embargoes. Within ESO has had such a unit, with the spe give ESO staff an insight into what they that task the Cabinet supported three cific mandate and responsibility for inter- and their colleagues across the organisa- projects with the negotiation of ITAR- nal communication. tion do and why they do it. In 2013, five related agreements and provided advice talks took place in Garching, and one in for the implementation of the rules. In addition to advising management and Vitacura, on a wide range of topics such others on internal communication in gen- as the observing proposal process, the Regarding intellectual property manage- eral, the Internal Communication Office components that make up astronomical ment, the ESO Raman Fibre Amplifier Pat- launched a range of specific activities instruments, and how the ALMA anten- ent (application issued in 2008, European during the year, aimed at improving inter- nas were procured. Patent 2081264 granted in 2010) was also nal communication at ESO. granted in Canada as 2711939 and Japan

90 ESO Annual Report 2013 Tim de Zeeuw, ESO’s Director General, speaks at an Information day for Israeli industry at the Asher ESO Industry Day on 22 January 2013 in the Nicolaus Space Research Institute in Haifa, Israel. Copernicus Astronomical Center in Warsaw, Poland. as 5337819. The ESO ALMA Black Body ber State. During 2013, a major effort tating Polish membership of ESO. With Calibration patent application was pub- was undertaken to support the ongoing Poland as a member, all the large Euro- lished in Europe, Canada, USA and Japan. ratification process in the Brazilian pean countries with a strong involvement Knowhow in both areas is exploited via Congress. For this purpose, an ad hoc in astronomical research would have licenses to industry. Besides the manage- group was created with members of become members. ment of ESO’s patent portfolio, considera- the Cabinet and others, working closely ble effort was put into providing advice to with the Brazilian authorities, the astro- The interest in establishing links with ESO ESO projects with regard to confidentiality nomical community and other relevant remains strong in a number of countries. issues and intellectual property owner- stakeholders. The ratification process Informal discussions took place with par- ship. This resulted in the conclusion of gained momentum early this year when, ties at different levels in various countries. several non-disclosure agreements. at the request of President Dilma Rousseff, In July, the Director General visited South Congress opened the proceedings as Africa and met with Mr Derek Hanekom, The Cabinet, in close collaboration with a priority action. By the end of the year, the South African Minister for Science the relevant directorates and depart- the agreement had been approved by the and Technology, who had previously paid ments, is responsible for the manage- Commission on External Relations and a visit to ESO in Garching. The visit was ment of EU projects. The ESO COFUND National Defence and the Commission followed up by a high-level South African Fellowship Programme came to an end on Science, Technology, Communication delegation visit to the ESO Paranal this year having supported ESO and the and Informatics, both of the House of Observatory in December. scientific community with nine fellowships Representatives. The Commission on hosted by the ALMA ARC nodes. Con- Justice and Citizenship had begun its In late November, ESO organised a dedi- cerning new projects, ESO welcomed deliberations, based on a favourable cated information day for Israeli industry two excellent Marie Curie Fellows in recommendation by the Rapporteur, at the Asher Space Research Institute in Garching, each for a two-year period. In while the Commission on Finances and Haifa. The well-visited event was organ- addition to the consultations with EIROfo- Taxation had yet to deal with the ques- ised in cooperation with the Technion — rum and between the partnership and the tion. ESO’s support actions also included Israel Institute of Technology, and leading European Commission, ESO has also making invitations to a number of relevant Israeli astronomers. In addition to com- undertaken a dedicated study of the next stakeholders to enable them to obtain a pany representatives, participants includ- EU Framework Programme, Horizon first-hand impression of ESO and its activi- ed the Israeli Space Agency and the 2020, by identifying possibilities and ties in Chile. This included media visits, Israel-Europe R&D Directorate (ISERD, assessing the legal and financial aspects tutorials on proposal writing for Brazilian the Israeli inter-ministerial agency for with a view to enabling informed deci- astronomers offered by the Head of the Reasearch and Development cooperation sions by the ESO Management about Office for Science in Chile and an ESO with Europe). possible future ESO participation. presence at key events in Brazil in the course of the year. The year 2013 marked five years since ESO became a permanent observer at the International affairs Following an exchange of letters between United Nations Committee for the Peace- the Director General and the Polish Minis- ful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). In December 2010 the Federal Govern- ter for Science in late 2012, informal On this occasion, ESO addressed the ment of Brazil signed an accession discussions at Ministry level took place in Committee and summarised its contribu- agreement to join ESO as its 15th Mem- the course of 2013 with the aim of facili- tions over that period. A key element has

ESO Annual Report 2013 91 Chilean Minister of Economy, Development and ESA astronaut Pedro Duque addresses the audience Tourism, Mr. Félix de Vicente, during his visit to ESO at ESO Headquarters. Garching. been ESO’s support for the UNCOPUOS nology Transfer facilitate joint activities activities culminated in an official cele Action Team 14, which deals with the such as the EIROforum School of Instru- bration in Santiago on 8 November, potential threat from Near-Earth Objects. mentation, the third of which was held at with the participation of Chilean govern- The team has elaborated recommenda- CERN in May. A further topic has been ment officials, ESO Management, repre- tions for an international response to the the provision of input to the preparations sentatives of the ESO governing bodies, impact threat for Near-Earth Objects, for Horizon 2020, the 71 billion euro ambassadors, academic authorities, including the formation of an international European Union support programme for and prominent personalities from the asteroid warning network. The recom- science, technology and innovation. The Chilean astronomical community. The mendations were submitted to the UN science policy interactions by EIROforum President of Chile received the Director General Assembly and approved in Octo- included a detailed position paper on General of ESO at the presidential palace ber. The discussions within the Action the role, prospects and opportunities of on 14 November. Several embassies Team also led to new collaboration scientific instrumentation, in particular in promoted activities reflecting on the between ESO and ESA in the context of large European research infrastructures. importance of astronomy in culture and ESA’s Space Situational Awareness pro- society, including the visits of European gramme. ESO is the only major ground- astronauts Pedro Duque and Claude based observatory directly involved in Activities in host states Nicollier to Paranal. this Action Team that also has the powerful resources which might be called upon As part of the efforts to strengthen rela- The transfer of the land at Cerro to locate and characterise faint or other- tions with the host state of Germany, a Armazones to ESO was an important wise difficult to access potentially hazard- formal point of contact was appointed for highlight in ESO’s relations with Chile. ous asteroids. In consequence ESO has the Federal authorities as well as for the Following official publication of the trans- set up a small expert group to facilitate Bavarian State Government. Support for fer decree, the documents were handed the timely and appropriate submission of Chile in Europe was manifested in ESO’s over by the President of Chile, Sebastián observing proposals to make astrometric participation in a major promotion activity Piñera, to the ESO Director General dur- and physical observations of potentially in Germany, organised by the Chilean ing a ceremony at the Paranal Residencia hazardous objects that require the use of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ProChile, in the presence of the Chilean Minister of large telescopes. As a test case, the the Chilean Export Promotion Bureau, in Foreign Affairs, Alfredo Moreno, on team selected a small number of objects cooperation with the Bavarian Chamber 27 October. for astrometric measurements with the of Industry and Trade. On this occasion, VLT under the DG’s Discretionary Time. the Chilean Minister of Economy, Devel- The joint summit of the Economic The first observations were carried out in opment and Tourism, Félix de Vicente, Commission for Latin America and the December. visited ESO Headquarters, accompanied Caribbean and the European Union took by Jorge O’Ryan Schütz, Chile’s Ambas- place in Chile at the end of January, with ESO maintained its participation in sador to Berlin. the participation of numerous heads of EIROforum, the partnership of eight Euro- state. Taking advantage of their presence pean organisations that operate large The year 2013 marked the 50th anniver in Chile, the highest authorities of the research infrastructures. Thematic work- sary of the signature of the agreement European Union, the President of the ing groups in International Affairs, IT, between ESO and Chile that initiated their European Council, Herman van Rompuy, Instrumentation, Knowledge and Tech- long-term relationship. Commemorative the President of the European Commis-

92 ESO Annual Report 2013 The Prime Minister of France, Jean-Marc Ayrault, President of the European Council, Herman Van and Massimo Tarenghi at the Summit of the Com- Rompuy, during a visit to the Paranal Observatory. munity of Latin American and Caribbean States — European Union (CELAC-EU) in Santiago.

The President of the European Commission, José Austrian and Portuguese Ministers for Science visit Manuel Barroso, during a visit to ESO’s Paranal Paranal. Observatory. Inauguration speech by sion, José Durão Barroso, and the High the President of Chile at Representative for Foreign Affairs and ALMA. Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, visited Paranal.

The inauguration of ALMA on 13 March in the presence of President Piñera, which ESO organised together with the Joint ALMA Observatory and the other two ALMA Executives, also enabled inter actions in Chile with senior representatives of Member States.

Other governmental delegations that visited Paranal included those headed by the Austrian Minister for Science and Research, Karlheinz Töchterle; the Portuguese Minister for Education and

ESO Annual Report 2013 93 Science, Nuno Crato; the Bavarian State Minister Heubisch’s Minister for Science, Research and the delegation at Paranal. Arts, Wolfgang Heubisch; the Vice Presi- dent of the German Federal Parliament, Eduard Oswald; the Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission, Anne Glover; and a dele gation of senior Swedish officials, who visited the ALMA Observatory as well. The Danish Crown Prince and Princess also visited Paranal, accompanied by the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Villy Søvndal. The Chilean Minister of Mining, Hernán de Solminihac, and the Minister Secretary General of the Presidency, Cristián Larroulet, paid visits to Paranal as well. The Observatory also hosted the ambassadors of Finland, Greece, Chief Scientific Adviser Norway and Poland. to the President of the European Commission, Anne Glover, visits the ESO maintains institutional contacts with Paranal Observatory. Chilean academic authorities. The Rector of the University Andrés Bello visited Paranal on 27 June, and members of the Conference of Rectors of Universities in Chile travelled to the Observatory on 26 July. The Director of the Vatican Observatory, Dr José G. Funes, visited the Observatory in August. ESO was represented at the International Confer- ence on Scientific Culture organised by Universidad Andrés Bello.

Continuing its determined efforts to preserve the dark skies in the north of The Danish Crown the country, the Government of Chile is Prince and Princess on the platform of the leading a proposal to obtain the declara- Very Large Telescope. tion by UNESCO for the sites where the major observatories are located as World Heritage Sites. ESO attended the launch meeting at UNESCO in Paris and has joined the other international observatories and other institutions in Chile in supporting this initiative. ESO also collabo- rates with other institutions on similar sky protection initiatives, such as the effort led by the EuroChile Foundation to obtain the Starlight label for the privileged areas in the II Region.

Internal Audit

Internal Audit provided support to the as various audit certificates for EU- The internal auditor also performed external auditors in the performance financed projects and the certification several audits, including audits of the risk of their duties. Other regular activities of the annual accounts of the Staff Asso- management system at ESO, the during the year were the audit certificate ciations in Chile and Europe. accounting of fixed assets and one on for Associated Universities, Inc. as well procurement issues.

94 ESO Annual Report 2013 ESO images and model of the E-ELT in the centre of the Presidential Retreat room at the CELAC-EU Summit, before the start of the Presidents’ private meeting. The summit, which is the biggest such event ever organised by Chile, took place in Santiago during the week of 22–28 January 2013. Committees Roland Halbe Roland

96 ESO Annual Report 2013 Council

As its governing body, the ESO Coun- Both the Council and the Committee of cil determines the policy of the organi Council (the informal body of Council) Council and Committee of Council 2013 sation with regard to scientific, techni- normally meet twice during the year: cal and administrative matters while however, in 2013 there was a requirement President Xavier Barcons (Spain) delegating the day-to-day running to for an additional Extraordinary Council the Director General. Council and the meeting which took place at the same DG are assisted by the following Com- time as the March Committee of Council. Austria Sabine Schindler Daniel Weselka mittees: The two ordinary Council meetings were held in Garching, on 5–6 June and Belgium Christoffel Waelkens The Finance Committee is charged 4–5 December. The first Committee of Sophie Pireaux with the general responsibility of Council meeting was held in Chile on Czech Republic Jan Palouš advising Council on all matters of 11–12 March in conjunction with the Jan Buriánek administrative and financial manage- ALMA Inauguration Event on 13 March, ment, and making decisions, on behalf while the second was kindly hosted by Denmark Uffe Gråe Jørgensen of Council, on matters for which they the UK delegation in Edinburgh on Cecilie Tornøe have been delegated the requisite 9–10 October. All the meetings were Finland Jari Kotilainen powers, including the award of major chaired by the Council President, Profes- Pentti Pulkkinen contracts. sor Xavier Barcons. France Jean-Marie Hameury Christophe Troyaux The Scientific Technical Committee is During the March meeting, Council established as an advisory committee approved, by simple majority, the inter- Germany Thomas Henning on matters related to the planning and pretation of the Rules of Procedure for Thomas Roth operation of ESO and advises Council Council for non-participating Member Italy Bruno Marano/Giovanni and the DG on policy matters of scien- States of a supplementary programme. Bignami tific importance and priorities. Delegates also agreed that, for those Matteo Pardo Member States who had as yet not voted The Users Committee is made up of positively for the E-ELT, the timing for this The Netherlands Konrad Kuijken Jan van de Donk representatives of ESO users from was to be extended in order to ensure each Member State and advises the that (hopefully) all Member States would Portugal Teresa Lago DG on matters concerning the use of be able to participate in the programme. Fernando Bello ESO facilities. Spain Rafael Bachiller At the June meeting, an update was Luis E. Ruiz The Observing Programmes Com provided by the Council President and mittee reviews and ranks all observing the ESO Director General on a number of Sweden Claes Fransson proposals and provides a recommen- ongoing events/actions and the respec- Catarina Sahlberg dation to the DG for the distribution of tive Directors/Division Heads presented Switzerland Georges Meylan observing time. The OPC is organised feedback on all aspects of ESO’s pro- Martin Steinacher (Vice in topical panels by scientific gramme, including the status of La Silla, President) categories. Paranal and ALMA. Dr Pierre Cox, the United Kingdom Patrick Roche incoming ALMA Director, was welcomed John Womersley The ALMA Proposal Review Commit- to the meeting and gave his insight into tee is made up of the committee chair the status of the project. During discus- and the chairs of the ALMA Review sions, Council was pleased to note that Panels, of which there is at least one two of the remaining three Member for each of the main scientific catego- States had been able to change their vote ries. The committee reviews the single to positive with regard to participation in ranked proposal list resulting from the the E-ELT programme. In order to follow merging of the individual ALMA Review the progress of the E-ELT, it was agreed Panel rankings and advises the ALMA that an E-ELT subcommittee of the STC Directors’ Council on the scientific should be established to advise the STC programme of ALMA. on technical and scientific matters related to construction and operations models as well as scientific priorities concerning its instrumentation. Council approved the External Audit Report 2012 and dis- charge was granted to the Director View of one of the two circular cut-outs of the General for the same year. Financial Headquarters extension with a diameter of 8.20 metres — exactly the same dimensions as aspects were discussed, culminating in the large VLT mirrors at the Paranal Observatory. the approval of a number of matters

ESO Annual Report 2013 97 including future arrangements for the cal- agreed that an E-ELT Management Advi- year term, Council unanimously appoint- culation of Member State contributions. sory Committee should be established ed Dr Colin Vincent to take up this The appointments of the chair and mem- which would act as an advisory body to position. Two internal posts were also bers of the Visiting Committee 2013 were Council and the Director General. A new approved — the appointment of Profes- approved, as was the Annual Report for working group, the Strategy Working sor Rob Ivison as Director for Science 2012 and the document outlining the Group to look at ESO’s future role in and Dr Roberto Tamai as the E-ELT ESO Long Term Perspectives was noted. ground-based astronomy, was approved Programme Manager. To celebrate the with a first meeting planned for early opening of the new building, an inaugu The final Council meeting of the year took 2014. As part of the discussions related ration event was held at the end of the place in Garching in the splendid setting to finance, approval was given for the first day of the meeting which included a of the new Council room in the ESO ESO Budget and the scale of contribu- ceremony with speeches delivered by Headquarters extension building. Follow- tions, both for 2014. Elections took place the Mayor of Garching, the Council Presi- ing the regular updates of the ESO pro- for the appointment of personnel to the dent, the Director General, Mr Philippe gramme, approval was given by Council various ESO Committees including the Auer, the building architect and Mr for a number of Guaranteed Observing ALMA Board, Finance Committee, OPC, Andreas Böhme from the construction Time awards including CRIRES+ and STC and the Tripartite Group, as well as company BAM. This was followed by ERIS. Council also authorised the Direc- the unanimous re-election of the Council guided tours of the new rooms and facili- tor General to sign, on behalf of ESO, an President and Vice President and the ties. amendment concerning the extension STC Chair. As the current Finance Com- of APEX until 31 December 2017. It was mittee Chair had completed his three-

View of the new Council Room in the new ESO Headquarters extension building in Garching.

98 ESO Annual Report 2013 Finance Committee

Mr Johan Holmberg chaired two ordinary Other subjects in the meetings included Finance Committee 2013 Finance Committee meetings as well as financial issues such as annual accounts, one extraordinary meeting. The latter was the external audit report and financial Chair Johan Holmberg (Sweden) held in October to discuss the impor- statements. The delegates also gave rec- tance of indexation on the ESO budget. ommendations to Council regarding the The Finance Committee recommended ESO reference salary within the CERN Austria Sabine Hertgen the indexed budget to Council at its Pension Fund and an amended contract Belgium Alain Heynen 137th meeting in November. As happens policy as well as a new formula for the every three years, this meeting took place adjustment of remuneration and allow- Czech Republic Věra Zázvorková/Pavla in Chile in combination with site visits to ances for international staff. Katzová Paranal and ALMA. Denmark Cecilie Tornøe (Vice-chair) The Committee approved the award of At its 135th meeting in May, Finance twelve contracts exceeding € 500 000, Finland Sirpa Nummila Committee decided to recommend to two amendments to existing contracts Council the adoption of a new method for and two single-source procurements France Patricia Laplaud the calculation of the scale of Member exceeding € 250 000, one of these by Germany Gisela Schmitz-DuMont States’ contributions and its application written procedure. from 2017 onwards. This will help to Italy Giampaolo Bologna reduce the sometimes sharp variations in The Netherlands Mirjam Lieshout-Vijverberg the yearly contributions.

Portugal Maria José Almeida

Spain Inmaculada Figueroa

Sweden Tobias Hellblom Auer Weber/ESO Auer Switzerland Astrid Vassella

United Kingdom Colin Vincent

The new ESO technical building. The building, which will also host one of the largest computer archives of astronomical data in the world, will nurture the technological and scientific innovations that ESO’s Euro- pean Extremely Large Telescope will require.

ESO Annual Report 2013 99 Scientific Technical Committee

The STC met twice for its regular semi- munity input is the correct one and a The Scientific Technical Committee 2013 annual sessions. The subcommittees planned retreat plus community work- met the day before the STC to discuss shop would be the right format for this Austria Josef Hron several topics in greater depth. Following process. a decision by Council in June, a new Belgium Hans Van Winckel (LSP) subcommittee specifically focussing on The presentation on the planning road- E-ELT development met for the first time map for VLT/I instrumentation was dis- Czech Republic Stephane Vennes in October. The Committee met again, cussed and the formation of a core group Denmark Johan Fynbo (LSP) by teleconference, on 3 December to dis- of members from the STC, ESO and the cuss VLT instrument planning for 2015 community was encouraged. This core Finland Alexis Finoguenov and 2016. group should prepare a community work- France Anne-Marie Lagrange shop to discuss future scientific direc- (ESC Chair) tions and the required instrumentation. 80th STC meeting The Committee then discussed the Germany Matthias Steinmetz (ESC) results of two Phase A studies concern- Italy Alessandro Marconi The STC held its 80th meeting from ing massively multiplexed spectrographs. (STC Chair) 22–23 April in Garching. The La Silla It welcomed both studies and recom- Paranal Subcommittee (LSP) and the mended that the instrument development Portugal André Moitinho (LSP) European ALMA Science Advisory Com- be started after the recommendations Spain Almudena Alonso-Herrero mittee met on 21 April and reported the from the Phase A reports are implement- (ESC) outcome of their deliberations to the STC. ed. Given the budgetary situation, MOONS should proceed before 4MOST. Sweden Sofia Feltzing (ESC) The terms of office for the representatives For the latter, the operational model and Switzerland Didier Queloz (LSP) from the Czech Republic, Finland and the community input should be dis- Spain had come to an end and they were cussed further before implementing the The Netherlands Cornelis Maarten de Vos replaced. project. A strict budgetary control should (LSP Chair) be exercised for all new instrument devel- United Kingdom Robert Ivison (ESAC Chair) The STC discussed the document pre- opments. The upgrade of the CRIRES senting the long-term perspectives of the instrument to an echelle mode and an Chile Leonardo Bronfman organisation. It was concerned by the upgrade of HARPS were recommended pressure on the programme created by by the STC. Progress on the VLTI imple- Members at Large the non-indexation of the 2013 ESO mentation has been apparent in the past Elaine Sadler (ESAC) budget and the corresponding savings, year and the STC recommended optimis- Gillian Wright which had to be found within the ongoing ing resources and the scientific return John Monnier (LSP) programme. The STC appreciated the of this facility. The PRIMA situation was Rachel Akeson (ESAC) first discussions on plans beyond the discussed along with the preparations of current programmes: VLT/I, ALMA and the infrastructure for the GRAVITY and Observer E-ELT. MATISSE instruments. The STC was Brazil Marcos Diaz informed about the problems encoun- The Committee was concerned that, at tered during the VISIR upgrade and dis- this early stage in the E-ELT programme, cussed possible solutions. It encouraged the budgetary pressures had already ESO to inform the community about the started to blur the line between construc- impact on current and future mid-infrared tion and operations as ESO moved instruments using similar detector tech- instruments from the construction costs nology. A new instrument for the NTT into the early years’ operations budgets. should be solicited to upgrade this tele- The current planning for the instrumen scope. ESO is encouraged to find new tation was supported by the STC. In par- ways to involve the community for such ticular, the increased flexibility for the an instrument. start dates for the instruments was welcomed. The STC asked for an E-ELT The STC noted the considerable pro- subcommittee to be implemented by gress with ALMA. It provided input con- October, to provide better oversight. cerning the Cycle 2 call and the planned development studies. It supported the The STC was very interested in the dis- proposed extension of APEX operations cussion of the planning of the future of by two years noting that a further review the La Silla Paranal Observatory and in due time should take place to assess welcomed the draft paper outlining ideas. the impact of new instrumentation. The It stressed that the approach with com- observing time ESO receives from the

100 ESO Annual Report 2013 tions to the instrument will most likely be exceeded in the coming years. This will lead to a scientific impact on the broader community through a reduction of the observing time available to the general users. The Committee also believed that guaranteed observing time should be evaluated from all viewpoints to assess its impact. The STC would like to be informed regularly of the situation. The Committee was ready to discuss possible changes to the guaranteed observing time policy in the future.

The STC noted with pleasure the delivery of all 25 European antennas to ALMA. It was also impressed by the significant number of publications with ALMA data. It was concerned by ALMA’s vulnerability due to the apparently unstable perma- The Scientific Technical Committee at its meeting in nent power supply. It was further con- Garching in April. cerned that Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 observations may not reach the scientific goals. Arizona Radio Observatory, in exchange operandi. The STC was encouraged by The STC endorsed the creation of a for the ALMA prototype antenna, should the progress with the financing of the Portuguese ALMA Expertise Centre and be allocated to a few large projects. E-ELT and recommended maintaining the asked ESO to formulate criteria for an momentum of the project, given that the Expertise Centre and conversion to a full competition is working on a very similar ARC node. The STC also asked ESO to 81st STC meeting timescale. develop a long-term strategy for the ARC nodes. The ALMA development plans The 81st meeting of the STC took place The current planning for AO capabilities were presented to the STC and it recom- in Garching on 22–23 October. The LSP, in the coming years at the VLT were mended proceeding with the selected ESAC and the newly formed ESC (E-ELT discussed. The delay in the ERIS project studies. The Committee did suggest Subcommittee) met the previous day, 21 will severely restrict ESO’s AO-imaging investigating possible collaborations with October, also in Garching, and all duly capabilities for several years. The STC other ALMA partners on overlapping reported to the STC. The main topics of requested a trade-off study between the development projects. The Committee discussion were the ESO Budget and current VLT instruments in order to estab- regretted the long duration of Cycle 2, Forward Look 2014–2017 and updates lish the planning for the coming years. which could translate into missed scien- on all major ESO programmes. The Com- All instruments should be assessed for tific opportunities, hinder attempts to mittee was also presented new Terms of their scientific impact to provide a basis widen the community and create a disad- Reference and Rules of Procedure. for the future planning. This assessment vantage for researches with shorter con- was discussed by the STC at a special tractual time scales. The STC recom- The ESO Budget and Forward Look teleconference on 3 December. The mended that ArTeMiS on APEX should be 2013–2016 was presented to the STC, Committee reiterated its encouragement offered to the community and that the which expressed its appreciation of the to ESO for a call to the community for guaranteed observing time given to the efforts made by ESO to maintain its new instruments on the NTT. consortium is commensurate with their ambitious programmes despite the diffi- efforts, but will not disadvantage the cult financial situation. The STC stressed The STC endorsed the VLTI development community. the continuing need for strategic deci- plan, but was concerned by the slow sions to be taken in the context of short-, progress with the highest priority VLTI The scientific potential for the Cerenkov medium- and long-term plans. The STC infrastructure projects: adaptive optics Telescope Array was discussed by the would like to work with the ESO Manage- with the auxiliary telescopes and active STC. The scientific impact and potential ment to review the priorities of the scien- vibration control. PRIMA should be for the ESO community should be dis- tific programmes and to evaluate the assessed in a special review to report cussed at the next meeting. impact of the limited available resources back to the STC. on science programmes. The STC recommendations from the The STC noted that the limit of 10% guar- 2013 meetings can be found in full at: The ESC provided its first input to the anteed observing time on the VLT given http://www.eso.org/public/about-eso/ STC and established its working modus to instrument consortia for their contribu- committees.html.

ESO Annual Report 2013 101 Observing Programmes Committee

During its meetings in May and Novem- The OPC reviewed 19 open-time propos- The Observing Programmes Committee 2013 ber, the Observing Programmes Com als for the VISTA survey telescope, of mittee evaluated the proposals submitted which six were scheduled. for observations to be executed in Peri- Conny Aerts (Chair) ods 92 (1 October 2013 to 31 March On La Silla, HARPS and EFOSC2 Norbert Langer (Vice-Chair) 2014) and 93 (1 April 2014 to 30 Septem- remained in high demand. ber 2014). The number of proposals for Yann Alibert observations with the ESO telescopes in Within the framework of the continuing Giuseppe Bono (P92) these two periods were 892 and 898 agreement between ESO and ESA for Wolfgang Brandner respectively. a joint telescope time allocation scheme Fabio Bresolin for coordinated observations with the Andrea Comastri (P93) The balance between extragalactic sci- VLT and XMM-Newton, proposals for Ric Davies ence (categories A and B) and stellar such observations were invited again; the Jesus Falcon-Barroso science (categories C and D) has shifted tenth time this has happened. ESO François Hammer towards the stellar panels with two thirds received nine applications in P92 and Martin Krause (P92) of the proposals and the requested time P93, of which six qualified for the alloca- Simona Mei now in C and D. This means that the tion of telescope time. Time at both Ronald Mennickent (P93) demand for extragalactic observations facilities was granted to two joint propos- Dante Minniti (P92) has decreased slightly. The demand for als evaluated by the XMM–Newton Don Pollacco (P93) requested time in category C (Interstellar Observing Time Allocation Committee. Tom Ray Medium, Star Formation and Planetary Daniel Schaerer (P92) Systems) is close to 40% — more than Rainer Schoedel the extragalactic categories A and B Targets of Opportunity Ben Stappers (P93) combined. Nial Tanvir Despite the stricter criteria applied to Massimo Turatto (P92) The OPC categories are specified in full Target of Opportunity programmes Roland Walter (P93) at www.eso.org/sci/observing/proposals/ since P86, the number of Target of opc-categories.html. Opportunity proposals submitted this Marc Audard (P92 member at large) year remained similar to previous years. Denis Burgarella (P92 member at large) As in previous periods FORS2, which is For P92 and P93 the OPC evaluated Davide Fedele (P93 member at large) mounted on Antu, remained the VLT 40 proposals each, of which 15 and instrument for which the largest amount 23 were scheduled respectively, for a of observing time was requested (531 total of about 355 hours. FORS2 is the nights); ahead of X-shooter (417) on most demanded instrument for Target Yepun (UT3). Because of the combined of Opportunity observations (about 210 presence of FORS2 and the newly requested hours), followed by X-shooter deployed KMOS, Antu is the most popu- and UVES. These three instruments lar UT, with a ratio between the requested were allocated 65% of the Target of and the available time, or pressure, of Opportunity time. 5.6, followed by Yepun at 4.0. The move of X-shooter (from UT2 to UT3) and the temporary unavailability of NACO has Calibration Programmes turned into a pressure decrease for Kuey- en (2.0) and Melipal (2.6), respectively. Calibration Programmes are designed to The possibility of installing a visitor instru- allow users to complement the existing ment at the VLT Interferometer continued coverage of the calibration of ESO instru- to generate considerable interest in the ments. Their main evaluation criterion is community. the comparison of the potential enhance- ment of the outcome of future science For P92 and P93 combined, proposals that can be expected from their execution requesting a total of 134 VLTI nights with the immediate return of current peri- were submitted for PIONIER, a near-infra- od science proposals directly competing red interferometric visitor instrument for the same resources. A total of four designed for imaging and fed by four Calibration Programmes were submitted telescope beams. These proposals were this year, from which three were recom- allocated 68 nights. mended for implementation by the OPC.

102 ESO Annual Report 2013 Large Programmes

Large Programmes are projects requiring a minimum of 100 hours of observing time that have the potential to lead to a major advance or breakthrough in the relevant field of study. Large Programme execution is spread over several observing periods, with a maximum duration of four years for observations to be carried out with the La Silla telescopes and of two years on the VLT/I and on APEX.

A total of 33 Large Programme proposals were received this year: 20 in P92 and 13 in P93. Following the OPC recommendations, six new Large Programmes were implemented in P92, and three in P93. The trend towards using a large fraction of the science time on the La Silla telescopes for the execution of Large Pro- grammes, encouraged by ESO and already embraced by the community in recent years, continued. The total allocation to new and ongoing Large Pro- grammes in P92–93 at the 3.6-metre telescope and at the NTT was 205 and 146 nights respectively. This corresponds to 62% and 44% of the available science time at these two telescopes (this includes the PESSTO Public Spectro- scopic Survey, to which 90 nights per year are allocated).

Director’s Discretionary Time

Proposals asking for Director’s Discre- tionary Time (DDT) may be submitted throughout the year for programmes that present a level of urgency incompatible with the regular proposal cycles handled by the OPC. In 2013 the ESO user community submitted 93 DDT proposals. After taking advice from an internal committee comprising ESO staff astronomers, the Director General approved 47 DDT proposals for implementation. The total amount of requested DDT time was about 480 hours.

The 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope against a backdrop of stars. The distinctive octagonal enclosure that houses the NTT stands tall in this image. This telescope housing was considered a technolog-

ical breakthrough when completed in 1989. Tafreshi ESO/B. Users Committee

The ESO Users Committee, an advisory observing preparation tools (SkyCat), the The Users Committee 2013 body to the ESO Director General on data reduction environment (Reflex) and matters related to the performance, oper- on the broader topic of observing pro- The Netherlands Scott Trager (Chairperson) ation and user interfaces of the La Silla posals and OPC process. Paranal Observatory and ALMA, held its annual meeting at ESO Headquarters on The special topic — reserved for the sec- Austria Stefan Kimeswenger 25 and 26 April. ond day of the meeting — was chosen Belgium Emmanuel Jehin to be VLTI Operations. This specific oper- After the opening talk by the Director ational area had not, in recent years, Czech Republic Adéla Kawka General on the ESO Programme and its been reviewed with the Users Commit- latest updates, the now customary series tee. It was thus deemed useful to carry Denmark Hans Kjeldsen of presentations (http://www.eso.org/ out a thorough evaluation, especially in Finland Elja Laurikainen public/about-eso/committees/uc/uc-37th. view of the forthcoming new interfero html) by ESO representatives of all key metry instruments (GRAVITY and MAT- France Claire Moutou operational areas highlighted ESO’s most ISSE). The presence at this session of Germany Thomas Preibisch recent operational achievements (pre- two VLTI expert users clearly helped the senters included the Observing Pro- Users Committee and ESO to identify the Italy Stefano Benetti gramme Office, the User Support Depart- strengths and weaknesses of the current ment, Paranal Science Operations, the system. Both presentations from the Portugal Nanda Kumar Back-end Operations Department, the experts provided a very detailed analysis Spain Lourdes Verdes Data Flow Infrastructure Department, the of all aspects of VLTI operations, from Montenegro Pipeline Systems Department and the the submission of VLTI observing propos- ALMA Regional Centre). In support and als and Phase 2 packages to their execu- Sweden Kirsten Kraiberg Knudsen ahead of the meeting, ESO delivered tion in Visitor and Service mode, to the Switzerland Hans Martin Schmid factsheets and reports to the Users Com- availability of data reduction pipelines and mittee members. The reports included data products in the ESO Archive. Their United Kingdom Gary Fuller (Vice-chair) summaries of all End of Mission reports feedback was very important and the Chile Manuela Zoccali received on Paranal and La Silla and of ESO team behind VLTI operations found Service Mode user feedback, prepared it very valuable. by Paranal and La Silla Science Opera- tions and the User Support Department, Based on the outcome of the user poll(s), respectively. on the content of the presentations and of the subsequent discussions, the Users In turn, the Users Committee presented Committee formulates its feedback to the main results of their user poll. Their ESO in the form of recommendations, the feedback, together with the highlights implementation of which is then reviewed presented by ESO, triggered the follow- at the following meeting. up discussion, which focussed on the

The Users Committee at its meeting in Garching in April.

104 ESO Annual Report 2013 The ESO Very Large Telescope begins a night of observations. Three of the four 8.2-metre Unit Tele- scopes are visible in this picture, taken looking

toward the west, the closest one being Yepun (UT4). (glphoto.it) Lombardi ESO/G.

ESO Annual Report 2013 105 ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2

106 ESO Annual Report 2013 This image of cosmic clouds in the constellation of Orion reveals what seems to be a fiery ribbon in the sky. The orange glow represents faint light coming from grains of cold interstellar dust, at wavelengths too long for human eyes to see. It was observed by the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder Experiment in Chile. Outreach

ESO’s outreach activities focussed on organised in collaboration with embas- Major developments also took place at major events this year. Soon after ESO’s sies of the ESO Member States in Chile, ESO Headquarters in Germany, which 50th anniversary in 2012, ESO, together as well as a special reception (read more provided an opportunity to communicate with the Joint ALMA Observatory and its on p. 92). with an audience interested in architec- international partners, inaugurated ALMA, ture. The opening of the Headquarters heralding a new era of discovery. The The year continued with other remarkable extension marked an important day in ALMA inauguration was streamed live highlights shared with the public: celebrat- ESO’s history, as it not only brought all of and it was accompanied by a 16-minute ing 15 years of the Very Large Telescope, ESO’s Garching staff together on one movie called ALMA — In Search of Our the visit of several high-level European site, facilitating valuable collaborative Cosmic Origins, a photo book, a booklet delegations to ESO’s Paranal Observato- work, but also provided a technical build- about ethno-astronomy in the region and ry, following the Summit of the Commu ing for ESO’s most advanced instruments two brochures about the project and the nity of Latin American and Caribbean to be assembled, tested and upgraded. contributions of the executives. States–European Union, two major visits We also announced the donation by the to Paranal Observatory and ALMA for Klaus Tschira Stiftung to ESO for building In 2013, ESO also celebrated 50 years Brazilian media and releasing Hidden a planetarium and visitor centre. The ESO of collaboration with Chile, a fruitful and Universe, the first IMAX® 3D film with Supernova will, from 2017, offer a memo- forward-looking relationship that has ESO as partner. The film is a ticket to the rable experience thanks to a fulldome allowed European and Chilean astronomy stars, taking viewers to ESO’s Very Large planetarium that uses the latest technolo- to work together to push back the Telescope and to ALMA, showing state- gy, and almost 2100 square metres of boundaries of science, technology and of-the-art telescopes in high-resolution permanent and temporary exhibitions. culture. The celebrations were organised time-lapse, mesmerising 3D versions of by the Representative in Chile and includ- celestial structures, and a 3D simulation Overall, 2013 offered the education and ed a series of cultural events, some of the evolution of the Universe. Public Outreach Department (ePOD) new

The poster for the 16-minute movie The top priority for the media attending the ALMA ALMA — In Search of Our Cosmic inauguration was to get the best footage of the Origins. amazing “big science machines” at Chajnantor. ESO/M. Kornmesser ESO/M.

This collage shows ESO’s facilities in Chile, merged into a single imaginary landscape.

108 ESO Annual Report 2013 Bernhardt + Partner + Bernhardt

Malcolm Ludgate, Director of Photography for the Architectural rendering showing the ESO Supernova, by Klaus Tschira, with the help of Darmstadt-based IMAX® 3D filmHidden Universe, filming ALMA in scheduled to open in 2017. The new building, which architects Bernhardt + Partner. When viewed from Chile's arid Atacama Desert. is already becoming an exciting challenge for ESO’s above the building symbolises a binary star system outreach department, was conceived and donated about to go supernova. opportunities and challenges to bring ESO 2013: News Popularity ESO and astronomy closer to people. We 450000 stepped into new outreach territories, acquired new skills and continued our 400000 endeavours to make ESO a household science brand. 350000

Press activities 300000 A total of 50 press releases and 102 announcements were published during 250000 the year. Compared to earlier years there was a larger fraction of science releases, reflecting Early Science results from 200000 ALMA and the two survey telescopes, in addition to the continuing stream of results from both the VLT and La Silla 150000 facilities.

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ESO Annual Report 2013 109 The most popular result of the year in This artist’s impression terms of news coverage was a release shows the view from the exoplanet Gliese 667Cd about three planets in the habitable zone looking towards the around the nearby star Gliese 667C. This planet’s parent star result was based partly on a re-analysis (Gliese 667C). of data from HARPS and confirms the popularity of exoplanet news and the pre- eminence of HARPS in this field.

In second place was a report on VLT observations of the gas cloud currently making a close approach to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy, based on VLT observations. The leading edge of this stretched cloud was detected to have passed its closest approach. This fascinating and unique set of observations will continue in 2014.

The major news event of the year was the ALMA technicians inauguration of ALMA on 13 March. Sev- demonstrate one of the ALMA antenna front end eral news products were produced to receivers to journalists mark the inauguration: two press releas- covering the ALMA inau- es, one on an ALMA science result in guration at the OSF labs. Nature, and another for the inauguration event itself (which required careful in situ coordination), an ESOcast and a Video News Release of the inauguration event itself. All these efforts led to impressive media coverage for ALMA and ESO, including several major pieces (front pages of national newspapers, evening TV news etc.). The streaming of the inauguration ceremony itself was viewed by 52 608 viewers.

News items to mark the 50th anniversary of ESO’s presence in Chile, which was Publications Exhibitions and events celebrated in late 2013, were produced. The number of products produced In Europe, exhibition activities were An ESO Picture of the Week was issued increased from 79 in 2012 to 105 in 2013, reduced. Small exhibitions were set up at for each week of the year, continuing and the number of pages produced the European Week of Astronomy and both a series of beautiful and striking decreased by 63% to 1075 pages. Space Science (EWASS) in July 2013, for photographs and astronomical images, a ProChile event at the Internationale and a channel to report on news items Handelskammer München and during the that did not necessarily require a full Audiovisuals Open House Days at CERN in Geneva in press release or announcement. September 2013. Ten episodes of the ESOcast video pod- During 2013 ESO received 126 formal cast and four video news releases were In support of the Representation Office in interview requests from the media in issued during the year. In addition several Chile, a special temporary ESO exhibition addition to interviews given during media video clips related to ALMA and the VLT was displayed at the CELAC–EU Summit, visits to the sites. Additionally, during the have been released. Chile’s largest international summit ever ALMA inauguration more than 80 inter- held in Santiago. Over six days, 45 heads views were given by ESO officials, ex The number of images in the online of state, 3000 delegates from more than perts and staff present at the ceremony image archive grew from 6427 to 8363 60 countries, and 1500 accredited jour- held at the OSF. This led to a substantial (up 30%). The number of videos in the nalists from around the globe were in number of news pieces on TV, radio, print online video archive grew from 2002 to contact with ESO through the 50 Years and electronic media. 2224 (up 11%, including 794 subtitle Awesome Universe exhibition, informative translations). panels, a giant ESO observatories floor

110 ESO Annual Report 2013 Web visitors 2013: 7835 202

eso.org – 55% spacetelescope.org – 27% iau.org – 8% almaobservatory.org – 5% portaltotheuniverse.org – 3% astronomy2009.org – 1% gigagalaxyzoom.org communicatingastronomy.org capjournal.org virtualastronomy.org eyesontheskies.org galileannights.org cosmiccollisions.org hiddenuniverse.org

President of the European Commision, Jose Manuel Distribution of the 7.8 million web visits among the Durao Barroso at the ESO exhibition area during the ESO websites. The number of visitors on eso.org Summit of the Community of Latin American and increased by 13%. While almaobservatory.org is still Caribbean States and the European Union. a small site, the number of visits almost doubled. jigsaw, and telescope models. ESO’s visi- All the web pages were consolidated into Brazil and Chile invited by ESO, ePOD bility was most prominent inside the one web system. This migration resulted took the lead in coordinating the visit to Presidential retreat room, where an E-ELT in many benefits: we now have an entry the site for a total of about 120 journalists model was placed at the very centre point for all ePOD web updates regard- covering the event. ePOD also ran the and images of the VLT were projected in less of static or dynamic content, and joint press conference at the ALMA OSF, large-format wall screens. this also made it possible, for instance, including a simultaneous virtual confer- for ESON to update their own translated ence for remote participants and took the In total, 18 outreach events and exhibi- ESO mini websites. In addition, the num- lead in arranging interviews on site for tions were supported in Chile, including ber of elements on the pages has been interested media. Among the European seven ESO–Chile 50th Anniversary spe- reduced by between a third and a quar- and Brazilian journalists, 20 were select- cial events organised by embassies from ter, and the pages load three to four ed by ESON to visit Paranal as part of a Member States. times faster. larger programme.

The products archive was cleaned and In the days after the inauguration, several Web and software development updated with new product types created, VIP and media delegations were hosted and the IDs of all products were updated at Paranal, together with Representation The core software for ESO’s public web according to a new unique coherent and Operations: the Danish Crown Prince infrastructure was upgraded to the latest scheme. These IDs are also used in the and Princess, the Austrian Federal Minis- version, which provides bug and security online shop and in the physical products ter for Science and Research, Karlheinz fixes along with new features. Many new archive. Töchterle, and the Portuguese Minister features were implemented, such as sci- of Education and Science, Nuno Crato, ence announcements and newsletters, as well as the Chief Scientific Adviser to internal announcements (also visible on Media, VIP and weekend visits in Chile the President of the European Commis- the information kiosks at ESO Headquar- sion, Professor Anne Glover. ters), and local events exhibitions for each In collaboration with Representation and of the ESO Science Outreach Network Operations in Chile, a total of 72 media Other large media delegations during the (ESON) countries, and which are auto- and VIP visits to ESO sites were handled year included a special delegation of matically included in the localised news- (3% fewer than in 2012). science journalists from Brazil, and a del- letters. egation of science journalists from France The most exciting media visits of the year and Italy was invited (together with Thales Translations in a given language family by far were the ones hosted within the Alenia Space). (e.g., German, Austrian German, Swiss framework of the ALMA Observatory German) are automatically created when inauguration, celebrated on 13 March. Other VIP and media delegations on one of the translations is uploaded. This ePOD played a major role throughout the Paranal through the year were the Presi- avoids the need for manual copy/paste of whole of the inauguration, providing ex dent of the Council of Europe, Mr Herman the texts, and ensures that small fixes tensive support to the Joint ALMA Obser- Van Rompuy, together with other digni- (typos, etc.) are fixed in a coherent man- vatory and other colleagues. In addition taries who participated at the CELAC–EU ner. to the 70 science journalists from Europe, Summit, and the President of Chile,

ESO Annual Report 2013 111 Sebastián Piñera, for the ceremony of the USA 250 000 Turkey donation of the Armazones land. Romania Norway Ireland Public visits to the observatories went Greece down by 17% compared to 2012, with a 200 000 Cyprus Australia total of 6539 weekend visitors at La Silla Chile and Paranal. Switzerland (all) Spain theNetherlands 150 000 Germany Finland ESO Science Outreach Network Czech Belgium Ukraine In order to increase the visibility of ESO in 100 000 Russia the Member States, ePOD operates the Poland Latvia ESO Science Outreach Network, consist- Iceland ing of outreach specialists, press officers, Hungary 50 000 Croatia educators who act as direct, local con- Albania UK tacts with the media and who organise Sweden the translation of ESO-related information Portugal 0 Italy into their local language. ESON also France 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 13 13 12 13 13 10 10 13 10 13 10 10 20 20 20 includes volunteers in other countries, 20 Denmark 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 l. 20 l. 20 l. 20 l. 20 r. r. r. r. y. v. y. v. y. v. y. v. n. 20 p. n. 20 n. 20 p. p. p. Brazil Ju Ju Ju who disseminate astronomical news and Ju Ja Ja Ma Ja Ma Ma No Ma No No No Se Ma Se Se Se Ma Ma Ma Austria information about ESO. In total, ESON operates in 30 countries, with information Translated web pages delivered by the ESO Science members; Chile is identified in purple. In 2013, in 21 different languages. The press Outreach Network shown per country per month. 17% of ESO’s outreach pages were delivered in The bluish colours identify the Member States, and languages other than English. releases, as well as most pictures of the reddish colours are used for the additional ESON week, and announcements, are trans lated into 18 different languages. Further- more, an ongoing fruitful collaboration The first ESO Astronomy with the EU Universe Awareness pro- Camp at the Astronomi- cal Observatory of the gramme results in additional versions for

J. Durnwalder Aosta Valley. children, issued as Space Scoops, which are also available in multiple languages. In 2013, 17% of the web pages viewed on eso.org were translated by ESON.

Community coordination and distribution

ESO’s community coordination efforts this year continued to support ePOD’s main activities by optimising the impact of the products.

A major inventory update took place, ESO was visible at big events such as which took place from 26–31 December which resulted in a new inventory system the Garching Campus Open House Day in Saint-Barthelemy, Nus, Italy. and the consolidation of the ESOshop and at the Cosmic Origins 2013 event catalogue to help the general public get a organised by CERN on the occasion of In the social media, we started organising better overview of the products we have the European event Researchers Night. competitions with partners, as well as on on offer. our own channels to engage more with In terms of partnerships, we expanded our audiences. We officially added an Our newsletter subscriptions grew to over our networks of Photo Ambassadors, ESO LinkedIn page to constantly promote 27 000 subscribers. To expand our reach Outreach Partner Organisations and vol- career opportunities. Our online commu- towards communities in the Member unteer translators. nities reached over 50 000 friends on States and beyond, we also implemented Facebook (up 73%) and over 20 000 fol- a translation service for our newsletters With the help of one of our partners, lowers on Twitter (up 56%). The Your ESO that now brings ESO news to the general Sterrenlab, ESO organised the first ESO Pictures Flickr group passed the mark of public and media in over 30 official lan- Astronomy Camp for 56 secondary 1000 photos shared by our community. guages/countries. school students (29 girls and 27 boys),

112 ESO Annual Report 2013 The planetary nebula Abell 33 captured using ESO's Very Large Telescope. Calendar of Events

January José Manuel Barroso and delegation at the VLT. ESO Industry Day held in Warsaw, Poland on 22 January.

On 26–27 January, the Government of Chile hosted the first summit of the Com- munity of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU), which brought many heads of state to Santiago. ESO’s activities were showcased with several important visits to Paranal. The visitors included European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, EU High Representative Lady Catherine Ashton and EU Council Presi- dent Herman van Rompuy. ESO Workshop on The Deaths of Stars ESO meeting on Science with ALMA ESO meeting on Astrochemistry in the and the Lives of Galaxies, Santiago, Band 2 (65–90 GHz) Bologna, Italy, ALMA Era, Copenhagen, Denmark, Chile, 8–12 April. 27–28 May. 28–31 January.

May June February 135th Finance Committee meeting. 128th Council meeting. ESO meeting on Shaping E-ELT Science and Instrumentation, ESO, Garching, 92nd Observing Programmes Committee Eduard Oswald, Vice President of the 25 February –1 March. meeting. German Federal Parliament visited Paranal on 16–17 June. A Bavarian university group, led by March Wolfgang Heubisch, Bavarian Minister for Visit to the ESO Headquarters by Félix Science, Research and the Arts, visited de Vicente, Chilean Minister for Economy, 82nd Committee of Council meeting held Paranal on 23–24 May. Development and Tourism, on 24 June. in Santiago, Chile. ESO participated in a major Chilean trade The VLT celebrated its 15th anniversary promotion event in Munich on the follow- ALMA inauguration, 13 March. Following since First Light on 25 May. ing day. the ALMA inauguration the Science Min- isters of Austria, Karlheinz Töchterle, and MPA/MPE/ESO/EC Joint Conference Portugal, Nuno Crato, paid visits to on The Physical Link between Galaxies Paranal, as did Anne Glover, Chief Scien- and their Halos, Garching, 24–28 June. tific Adviser to EC President Barroso.

Paranal was visited by the Crown July Prince and Princess of Denmark on 14–15 March. On 26 July a visit to Paranal of the Con- ference of Rectors of Chilean Universities ALMA Board meeting. took place.

ESO Overview (internal review). August

April First La Serena School of Data Science, La Serena, Chile, 12–16 August. APEX Board meeting.

80th Scientific & Technical Committee September meeting. The Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark during The 10 000th scientific paper was entered 37th Users Committee meeting. their visit to ESO’s Paranal Observatory. into the ESO Telescope Bibliography.

114 ESO Annual Report 2013 ESA/ESO Science Operations 2013 Group picture of the Conference, on Working Together in ESO/NUVA/IAG Work- shop on Challenges Support of Science, ESAC-Madrid, in Ultraviolet Astronomy, Spain, 10–13 September. ESO Garching.

Acceptance of the 25th and final Europe- an ALMA antenna on 23 September.

October

The science operation of KMOS commenced on 1st October.

83rd Committee of Council meeting.

136th Finance Committee meeting.

81st Scientific & Technical Committee meeting. ESO and the Republic of Chile celebrated ESO Industry Day at the Asher Space 50 years of working together to foster Centre in Haifa, Israel. ESO/NUVA/IAG Workshop on Challenges astronomy at a ceremony on 9 Novem- in Ultraviolet Astronomy, ESO, Garching, ber. 7–11 October. December A Swedish Research Council Delegation ESO provides extensive support for the visited Paranal and Chajnantor from 129th Council meeting held in the new International Astronomical Union Confer- 9–13 November. ESO Headquarters extension buildings ence Communicating Astronomy with which were accepted during December. the Public 2013, held in Warsaw, Poland ESO Workshop on Deconstructing between 14 and 18 October. Galaxies: Structure and Morphology in On 10–12 December, a South African the Era of Large Surveys, Santiago, Chile, Government delegation, lead by Thomas ESO/Observatoire de Paris Joint Work- 18–22 November. Auf der Heyde, Deputy Director-General shop on Metal Production and Distribu- of the South African National Department tion in a Hierarchical Universe, CNRS ALMA Community Days 2013: of Science and Technology visited Observatoire de Paris Meudon, France, Preparing for Cycle 2, ESO, Garching, Paranal and Chajnantor. 21–25 October. 19–20 November. The ESO Visiting Committee visited the On 27 October President Piñera of Chile, Workshop on 400 Years of Stellar Rota- ESO sites in Chile from 9 to 15 December. accompanied by the Minister of Foreign tion, Natal, Brazil, 21–26 November. Affairs Moreno, visited Paranal to hand First ESO Astronomy Camp held over in person the deed to the tract of 26–31 December. land containing Cerro Armazones.

Several activities took place to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the agreement between ESO and the Gov- ernment of Chile for the establishment of the (first) ESO telescopes in Chile.

November At a ceremony held on 137th Finance Committee meeting in 14 November 2013 at the La Moneda Palace, Santiago, Chile. Sebastián Piñera, the President of Chile, ALMA Board meeting. received the first atomic clock used by ESO in Chile from Tim de 93rd Observing Programmes Committee Zeeuw, ESO Director meeting. General.

ESO Annual Report 2013 115 The Milky Way looms over the Residencia at the Paranal Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert.

116 ESO Annual Report 2013 John Colosimo (colosimophotography.com)/ESO Colosimo John

ESO Annual Report 2013 117 Glossary of Acronyms

4LGSF Four-Laser Guide Star Facility CERN European Organization for Nuclear ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology 4MOST 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Research EU European Union Telescope (Proposed new CHAMP+ Dual channel heterodyne receiver array EWASS European Week of Astronomy and spectroscopic instrument for VISTA) (APEX) Space Science A&A Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics CHF Swiss francs ExA Journal, Experimental Astronomy A&ARv Journal, Annual Review of Astronomy CLIF Convolution with Linearized Inverse FEIC Front End Integration Centre (ALMA) and Astrophysics Filter algorithm for wavefront sensing FEROS Fibre-fed, Extended Range, Échelle ADS CNRS Centre national de la recherche Spectrograph (MPG/ESO 2.2-metre) International Italian optics company working on the scientifique DSM for the VLT FLAMES Fibre Large Array Multi Element CO Carbon monoxide Spectrograph (VLT) AEM ALMA construction consortium COFUND EU fellowship funding programme FORS2 FOcal Reducer/low dispersion AFTA Astrophysics Focused Telescope CONDOR 1.5 THz heterodyne receiver (APEX) Spectrograph (VLT)-2 Assets COSMOS HST survey programme GALACSI Ground Atmospheric Layer Adaptive AG Aktiengesellschaft CRIRES Cryogenic InfraRed Echelle Optics for Spectroscopic Imaging AGN Active Galactic Nucleus Spectrometer (VLT) (AOF) AIP Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics CRIRES+ Planned upgrade to CRIRES GIRAFFE Fibre-fed multi-object spectrograph Potsdam and part of the VLT FLAMES facility CUBES Cassegrain U-band Brazilian ESO AIV Assembly, Integration and Verification Spectrograph gNLT Garching Night Log Tool AJ The Astronomical Journal CuRe Fast wavefront reconstruction GLAO Ground Layer Adaptive Optics ALMA Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter algorithms for XAO with pyramid WFS GRAAL GRound-layer Adaptive optics Assisted Array CuReD Fast wavefront reconstruction by Lasers (AOF) AMBER Astronomical Multi-BEam combineR algorithms for XAO with pyramid WFS GRAVITY AO assisted, two-object, multiple- (VLTI Instrument) with pre-processing beam-combiner (VLTI) AN Journal, Astronomische Nachrichten DC Direct Current GROND Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near- Antu VLT Unit Telescope 1 DDT Director’s Discretionary Time Infrared Detector (MPG/ESO 2.2-metre) AO Adaptive Optics DG Director General GTC Gran Telescopio Canarias AOF Adaptive Optics Facility DIG Deep Imaging Group (Vitacura) GWh Gigawatt hours AOS Array Operations Site (ALMA) DMO Data Management and Operations HARMONI Proposed first light integral field spectrograph for the E-ELT APEX Atacama Pathfinder Experiment Division HARPS High Accuracy Radial Velocity ApJ Astrophysical Journal DRS DRS, formerly Boeing, detector manufacturer Planetary Searcher (3.6-metre) ApJS Journal, Astrophysical Journal HAWK-I High Acuity Wide field K-band Imager Supplement Series DSM Deformable Secondary Mirror HR Human Resources AQUARIUS Mid-infrared detector array (VISIR) EASC European ALMA Support Centre HST Hubble Space Telescope ARA&A Journal, Annual Review of Astronomy EC European Commission and Astrophysics E-ELT European Extremely Large Telescope IAG Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences (Brazil) ARC ALMA Regional Centre EFOSC2 ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (v.2) Icar Icarus, Planetary science journal, ArTeMiS Bolometric camera for APEX Planetary science journal EM&P Journal, Earth, Moon, and Planets ASIAA East Asia FEIC (ALMA) INAF Italian National Institute for ASSIST Adaptive Secondary Setup and EMMI ESO Multi-Mode Instrument Astrophysics Instrument Simulator (AOF test bench) ePOD education and Public Outreach IPAG Institut de Planetologie et AT Auxiliary Telescope for the VLTI Department d’Astrophysique de Grenoble AU Astronomical Unit ERIS Enhanced Resolution Imaging IR Infrared Spectrograph BAM Construction company for the ISAAC Infrared Spectrometer And Array Headquarters extension ERP Enterprise Resource Planning Camera (VLT) (Administration software) BLIP Background photon noise limited ISERD Israeli inter-ministerial agency for R&D ESA European Space Agency C2PAP Computational Center for Particle and cooperation with Europe Astrophysics, Universe Cluster, ESAC European Space Astronomy Centre IT Information Technology (ESA, Spain) Garching ITAR International Traffic in Arms Regulations ESAC European Science Advisory Committee CARLA Clusters Around Radio-Loud AGN JAO Joint ALMA Observatory (Spitzer) (for ALMA) JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory CASA Common Astronomy Software ESC E-ELT Subcommittee Applications (ALMA) ESO European Organisation for KMOS K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (VLT) CCD Charge Coupled Device Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere Kueyen VLT Unit Telescope 2 CEA Commissariat à L’Energie Atomique, France ESON ESO Science Outreach Network LABOCA Large APEX Bolometer CAmera CELAC_EU Summit of the Community of Latin ESPRESSO Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky LFC Laser Frequency Comb American and Caribbean States– Exoplanet- and Stable Spectroscopic European Union Observations

118 ESO Annual Report 2013 LGSF Laser Guide Star Facility NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory TRAPPIST TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals LMU Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität NTT New Technology Telescope Small Telescope München NUVA Network for UltraViolet Astrophysics TUM Technische Universität München LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas OAA Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory UK United Kingdom LPO La Silla Paranal Observatory OCA-NICE Cote d’Azur Observatory (Observatoire UK ATC UK Astronomy Technology Centre LSP La Silla Paranal Subcommittee de la Cote d’Azur) Ultracam High-speed camera (VLT) LTAO Laser Tomography Adaptive Optics OPC Observing Programmes Committee UltraVISTA Ultra-deep near-infrared survey in the M# Mirror # OSF ALMA Operations Support Facilities COSMOS field MACAO Multiple Application Curvature Adaptive P&SS Journal, Planetary and Space Science UN United Nations Optic PAE Provisional Acceptance Europe UNCOPUOS United Nations Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space MACCON Motion controller manufacturer PARLA PAranal Raman Laser, replacement for MATISSE Multi AperTure mid-Infrared PARSEC (VLTI) UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization SpectroScopic Experiment (VLTI) PARSEC Sodium line laser for VLT AO MCAO Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics UT 1–4 VLT Unit Telescopes 1–4: Antu, PASJ Journal, Publications of the Kueyen, Melipal and Yepun Melipal VLT Unit Telescope 3 Astronomical Society of Japan UVES UV-Visual Echelle Spectrograph (VLT) MENLO PASP Journal, Publications of the systems Optical equipment manufacturer Astronomical Society of the Pacific VHS VISTA Hemisphere Survey MERAC Mobilising European Research in PC Personal Computer VIDEO VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations Survey Astrophysics and Cosmology PDF Portable Document Format VIKING VISTA Kilo-degree Infrared Galaxy MICADO Adaptive optics imaging camera PDR Preliminary Design Review (E-ELT) survey PESSTO Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of VIMOS VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph (VLT) MIDI Mid-infrared Interferometric Instrument Transient Objects (VLTI) VIP Very Important Person PI Principal Investigator MNRAS Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal VIPERS VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Astronomical Society PIONIER VLTI visitor instrument Survey MOAO Multiple-Object Adaptive Optics PLC Programmable Logic Controllers VIRCAM VISTA Infrared Camera (E-ELT) MOONS Multi Object Optical and Near-infrared VISIR VLT Mid-Infrared Imager Spectrometer Spectrograph (VLT third generation) PRIMA Phase-Referenced Imaging and Micro- arcsecond Astrometry facility (VLTI) VISTA Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope MOSFIRE Near-infrared multi-object for Astronomy PSF Point Spread Function spectrograph (Keck) VLT Very Large Telescope QSO Quasi Stellar Object, quasar MPA Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics VLTI Very Large Telescope Interferometer R&D Reasearch and Development MPE Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial VLTI-PR# VLTI projects Physics rms Root Mean Square VMC VISTA survey of the Magellanic Cloud MPfIR Max Planck Institute for Radio SABOCA Shortwave Apex BOlometer Camera system Astronomy SAFRAN- VST VLT Survey Telescope MPG Max-Planck-Gesellschaft REOSC High performance optics company VVDS VIMOS VLT Deep Survey MPIA Max Planck Institute for Astronomy SAPHIRA Detector for the GRAVITY wavefront sensor VVV ESO public survey VISTA Variables in MUSE Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (VLT) the Vía Láctea SAXO SPHERE’S AO system (VLT) NACO NAOS-CONICA (VLT) WFI Wide Field Imager (MPG/ESO NAOJ National Astronomical Observatory of SCAO Single-conjugate adaptive optics 2.2-metre) Japan SDSS Sloan Digital Sky Survey XAO Extreme adaptive optics NAOMI Adaptive optics system for the ATs SEPA Single Euro Payments Area XMM- (VLTI) SHFI Swedish Heterodyne Facility Newton X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite (ESA) NAOS Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System (VLT) Instrument X-shooter Wideband ultraviolet-infrared single NASA National Aeronautics and Space SINFONI Spectrograph for INtegral Field target spectrograph (VLT) Administration Observations in the Near Infrared (VLT) Yepun VLT Unit Telescope 4 NEO Near-Earth Object SOFI SOn oF Isaac (NTT) zCOSMOS Large Programme to measure 30 000 NewA Journal, New Astronomy SPARTA Real-time computer for the AOF galaxies in the HST Cosmic Origins NewAR Journal, New Astronomy Reviews SPHERE Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast field NGC New General Catalogue Exoplanet Research instrument (VLT) Z-Spec Millimetre-wave spectrograph (APEX visitor instrument) NGC New General Detector Controller SPIFFI SPectrometer for Infrared Faint Field Imaging ΛCDM Lambda Cold Dark Matter NGSD Proposed large natural/laser guide star WFS detector (E-ELT) SPT South Pole Telescope μm Micrometre NOVA The Netherlands Research School for STC Scientific Technical Committee Astronomy (Nederlandse TAROT-S Télescopes à Action Rapide pour les Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie) Objets Transitoires South telbib ESO library telescope bibliography database

ESO Annual Report 2013 119 ESO Europe Cover: The Milky Way arching over ALMA. The year 2013 marked the inauguration of the Ataca- ma Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array on the Headquarters Chajnantor Plateau in northern Chile. Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2 Credit: ESO/B. Tafreshi 85748 Garching bei München Germany Phone +4989320060 Fax +49893202362 Email: [email protected] www.eso.org

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APEX Chajnantor Site ALMA Operations Support Facility II Región Kilómetro 121 Chile Carretera CH 23 Phone +56 55 2448 299 San Pedro de Atacama All images are courtesy of ESO unless Chile otherwise indicated. La Serena Office Phone +56224676416 Avenida Panorámica 4461 Edited by the DG Cabinet. Sector Aeroparque La Florida ALMA Array Operations Site Casilla 567 II Región Produced by the education and Public La Serena Chile Outreach Department. Chile Phone +56 51 272 601 ESO 2014 Fax +5651215175 ISSN 0531-4496