La Silla - Science Operation Department

Instructions for Visiting Astronomers

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Arriving at La Silla, you should receive

a room,
an observation jacket with safety reflecting strip (always wear it when walking at night),
a torch (always use it when walking at night),
a personal phone code
a Linux account.

If any is missing, request it from the Reception, in the Hotel.

You will use the Linux account for email, ftp, telnet home, etc, as well as OB preparation with P2PP. It is accessible from any of the drl* Linux PCs on the mountain.

You should contact your support astronomer as soon as possible. You can find the name of your support astronomer on the SciOp schedule. To contact him/her, pls use the paging system: from any phone at La Silla,

Dial 93
Wait for one bip
Dial the beeper number: 02 for 2.2m, 03 for 3.6m,04 for NTT.
Wait for several beeps
Repeat several times your phone number, slowly and clearly
Hang up and wait to be called back

Your support astronomer will help you with the strategy of your observations, and will show you how to use P2PP. Pls note that it is assumed that you have read the user's manual of the instrument you plan to use. This introduction will typically take place on the evening of your arrival.

On the evening of your first night, your support astronomer will assist you setting-up (transfer of the OBs to the telescope, show you the control room and explain you how to use the various programs), and will assist you with your observations untill you feel comfortable with the system. All the telescope related operations (as well as troubleshooting, when needed) are taken care of by your Telescope & Instrument Operator.

General Information

The following two links will take you to general information pages that you may want to read before arriving at La Silla.

Instructions to Visiting Astronomers on mission to Chile :
General instructions about travel arrangements, rules about observing runs, publication policy, financial support (ESO's Visiting Astronomer Section)
Guidelines for Visiting Astronomers at La Silla :
practical information about La Silla, communications, safety, transports (La Silla Logistic)

For reference, this section links to policies that apply in special situations. You will most likely not need them.

Phase I: Proposal for observing time

Assuming you have a bright scientific idea for observations with the La Silla telescopes, this section lists all the information you need to prepare a proposal for observing time.

Garching's general information about observations at ESO
Garching's Proposal Preparation and Submission instructions, with detail of telecope availability, with links to ESOFORM package, etc
List of all the instruments, with links to their respective pages, and corresponding email addresses to ask for help. Don't hesitate to contact us at these addresses.
Exposure Time Calculators for EMMI, SuSI2, SofI, WFI. For the other instruments, refer to their respective pages.

Phase II strategy

Once you have been awarded observing time, you will have to prepare your observations.

All ESO instruments are now driven using Observation Blocks (OBs). An OB defines one observation, or group of observation, that constitute a logical entity which should not be interrupted. Typical examples are a UBVRI sequence, a Red and a Blue spectrum, or a sequence of dithered K images.

An OB is constituted by

a Target (defining the position of the object),
an Acquisition Template (defining how to point the telescope to the target, e.g. by taking a short exposure to center the object in the spectrograph's slit)
an Observation Description, which in turn is consituted by a series of Observation Templates (e.g., a V 600s exposure, a R 400s and a I 500s).

In addition to the series of Observation Templates (for all the possible modes of the instruments), there are also some Calibration Templates (for biases, flats, wavelength calibration, focus, etc..).

A special program, P2PP, has to be used to create and edit the OBs. In Service Mode, the OBs are prepared long in advance and sent to ESO for scheduling and execution. In the case of visitor mode, the OBs are prepared at La Silla one or two days in advance, and are directly sent to the telescope using P2PP. It is possible to make some changes during the night, e.g. in order to adjust the strategy to the weather conditions or according to the data just acquired.

General tools for preparing the observations

List of all the instruments, with links to their respective pages, and corresponding email addresses to ask for help. Don't hesitate to contact us at these addresses.
Exposure Time Calculators for EMMI, SuSI2, SofI, WFI. For the other instruments, refer to their respective pages.
Tools for computing Visibility, Airmasses, Twilights
Standard stars

Service Mode

A separate page lists the instructions for the Phase II preparation for Service Mode. Pls follow them step by step.

Visitor Mode

Arriving at La Silla, you should receive a Linux account, which you will use for email, ftp, telnet home, etc, as well as OB preparation with P2PP. You should contact your support astronomer as soon as possible. You can find the name of your support astronomer on the SciOp schedule. To contact him/her, pls use the paging system: from any phone at La Silla,

Dial 93
Wait for one bip
Dial the beeper number: 02 for 2.2m, 03 for 3.6m, 04 for NTT.
Wait for several beeps
Repeat several times your phone number, slowly and clearly
Hang up and wait to be called back

(yes, this last paragraph is the same as the first of this page. Bis repetita placent)