From 2012 the ESO Science Archive Facility will cease distribution of data using optical disc media.

A new coronagraphic Apodizing Phase Plate (APP) has been placed since Period 86, in a pupil plane on NaCo and designed to work in the 3 to 5 micron range. APP Imaging is offered with either the narrow-band filter NB_4.05 or the broad band filter L_prime. It allows direct imaging (no mask) with an improved companion detection limit between 0.2 and 0.7” on one side of the PSF.

An alternative method for handling ESO Archive Requests for data and performing the instant download of data through a Download Manager is now available with full documentation provided in an Archive User Manual and in the FAQ. The new features are still subject to maintenance and are deployed in parallel to the existing user services for ftp retrieval and media delivery. Long term the Download Manager is planned to replace the ftp service and from now on already provides functionality to support the on-line PI-Pack service.

Phase 3 denotes the process in which principal investigators of ESO observing programmes return their reduced data products to ESO for storage in the ESO archive and subsequent data publication to the scientific community. Phase 3 is mandatory for ESO Public Surveys and for ESO Large Programmes since period 75.

A new query form has been released that provides access to pipeline processed HARPS (since October 2003) and FEROS (since April 2005) data.

In the framework of the ESO Large Programme "The ground-based counterpart of the CoRoT asteroseismic observations from space" (178.D-0361), time-series of high-resolution (R~48000) spectra have been obtained for 8 targets with FEROS@2.2-m ESO/MPI telescope, La Silla, Chile.

The ST-ECF is releasing the full set of ACS/WFC grism spectra into the Hubble Legacy Archive, consisting of 47919 1D and 2D spectra and associated multi-band image cutouts, extracted from 153 archival fields. This is the largest set of high-level spectroscopic data products publicly released to date. The ACS G800L grism spectra provides a wavelength range of 0.55-1.05µm, with a dispersion of 40Å/pixel and a resolution of ~80Å for point-like sources. These extracted spectra and associated ancillary data lead to the prompt classification of over 32000 unique sources and in many cases to the determination of the redshift of extra-galactic sources (galaxies and AGN).

VISTA, is a 4-m class wide field survey telescope for the southern hemisphere, equipped with a near infrared camera VIRCAM (1.65 degree diameter field of view at VISTA's nominal pixel size) containing 67 million pixels of mean size 0.339 arcsec and available broad band filters at Z,Y,J,H,Ks and a narrow band filter at 1.18 micron.

The LABOCA Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS) Submillimetre Survey (LESS) is a public legacy survey of the ECDFS at 870μm using the LABOCA camera (Siringo et al. 2009) on the APEX telescope (Gusten et al. 2006).

The HARPS polarimeter was commissioned in January 2010. The succesfull commissioning has allowed the full characterization of the polarimeter, and permitted to offer the new mode to the astronomical community starting from the ESO period 86. Read the announcement and the HARPS user manual for details.