ESO Annual Report 2004

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REM, the 60-cm robotic telescope that will scout the southern skies in search of the elusive optical/IR counterparts of gamma-ray bursters, was commissioned and started to work routinely towards the end of the year. ESO is thus ready to respond in the fastest possible way to gamma-ray alerts from the SWIFT satellite and other space observatories dedicated to the exploration of the high-energy universe. The optics of the La Silla DIMM were replaced by new ones. This led to a significant improvement in the image quality and of the signal level. As a consequence, the seeing measurements are now more accurate and can be performed on fainter stars. Not only was the actual performance of some of the instruments and telescopes enhanced, but also the possibility for observers to make decisions on-line was upgraded. A suite of easy to use, fast data reduction procedures and mini-pipelines allows observers to assess the quality of their data on line and in real time. La Silla also led the process of upgrading the on-line data reduction computers to stateof-the art LINUX machines which in some cases improved the data processing speed by more than one order of magnitude! Other improvements included the porting of the data archiving of most instruments to the Next Generation Archive System (NGAS), moving the EFOSC multi-object spectra punch to the central integrated control room (the “RITZ”), upgrading the Exposure Time Calculators for all instruments, etc. Unfortunately, there are glitches with SOFI, which requires a major overhaul to be cured. 34 ESO Annual Report 2004 The La Silla University (LSU), the structure designed a few years ago to cater to the training needs of the staff, both newly arrived and experienced ones, matured this year. On the basis of training plans developed by supervisors for each and every member of the staff, LSU programmed a curricular mesh and implemented a virtual eCampus for staff who for any reason could not attend the courses. LSU, which actually fulfills a requirement of the ISO9001 standard, became a bona-fide teaching institution in 2004. Observation Preparation tools The new 3.6 F/35 unit being mounted on the Serrurier. Astronomers applying for observing time at ESO must submit a description of the observations to be carried out in the form of an observing proposal. The Data Flow System group of the Data Management Division has worked hard over the past two years to replace the existing system based on e-mail and Latex by a new one: Since March 2004, astronomers now submit their observing proposals through the Web. View of the La Silla University Web page.
The turbulent region around the ring-shaped nebula DEM L 299 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Colour composite based on images obtained with the Wide- Field-Imager (WFI) at the ESO/MPG 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory.
Page 1 and 2: ESO Annual Report 2004
Page 3 and 4: ESO is the foremost intergovernment
Page 5 and 6: Contents Foreword 6 Introduction 7
Page 7 and 8: Introduction Another year has passe
Page 9 and 10: expanded at the desert site between
Page 11 and 12: Research Highlights This year has a
Page 13 and 14: Two extremely hot transiting exopla
Page 15 and 16: Formation of rocky planets in circu
Page 17 and 18: Quadrant 1: 1.600 µm Quadrant 2: 1
Page 19 and 20: Calibrating the cosmic distance lad
Page 21 and 22: Intergalactic stars 4 N 6 2 0 0 100
Page 23 and 24: Closer to the monster Active galaxi
Page 25: Composite colour-coded image - base
Page 28 and 29: Final preparation of AT1. In 2004,
Page 30: VLT Operations The VLT Observatory
Page 37 and 38: Chajnantor During the year the ALMA
Page 40 and 41: Extremely Large Telescope The OWL c
Page 44 and 45: The Organisation Office of the Dire
Page 46 and 47: Technical Developments The Technolo
Page 48 and 49: in its stand-alone guest instrument
Page 50 and 51: The Astrophysical Virtual Observato
Page 52 and 53: ST-ECF ESO and the European Space A
Page 54 and 55: Public Outreach ESO’s public outr
Page 56 and 57: ESO Press Releases ESO Press Photo
Page 58 and 59: Relations with Chile One of the pri
Page 60 and 61: European Affairs As in previous yea
Page 62 and 63: The Observing Programmes Committee
Page 64 and 65: The Scientific Technical Committee
Page 66 and 67: Summary of Use of Telescopes by Dis
Page 68 and 69: Finance Committee Finance Finance C
Page 70: Personnel The activities of the Per
Page 73 and 74: May The MIDI instrument on the VLTI
Page 75 and 76: Signing of the X-Shooter agreement
Page 77 and 78: Bennert, N.; Schulz, H.; Henkel, C.
Page 79 and 80: De Bruyne, V.; De Rijcke, S.; Dejon
Page 81 and 82: Harjunpää, P.; Lehtinen, K.; Haik
Page 83 and 84: Lazzaro, D.; Angeli, C. A.; Carvano
Page 85 and 86:
Papovich, C.; Dickinson, M.; Fergus
Page 87 and 88:
Spoon, H. W. W.; Moorwood, A. F. M.
Page 89 and 90:
Peer-reviewed publications by ESO S
Page 91 and 92:
Brown, T. M.; Ferguson, H. C.; Smit
Page 93:
European Organisation for Astronomi
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ESO Annual Report 2004

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