<title>VLT science operations: the first year</title>

Abstract

On 31 March 2000, the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) will complete the first year of science operations. During this first year, Antu (UT1) was operated with two instruments: Focal Reducer/Low Resolution Spectrograph (FORS-1) and Infrared Spectrograph and Array Camera (ISAAC). Both Visitor and Service Mode operations were successfully supported, with roughly equal time spent in each mode. On 1 April 2000, Kueyen (UT2) will begin science operations with two new instruments: UV-Visible Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) and FORS-2. The VLT science operations concept revolves around a distributed operations model. Front-end (proposal, observation, and scheduling preparation support and management) and back-end (quality control, Service Mode data distribution, and archive) operations are executed at ESO headquarters in Garching bei Munchen, Germany. Observation execution and on-line quality control are managed on-site at the Paranal Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile. The VLT Data Flow System provides the backbone infrastructure for VLT operations. Here we present an overview of the VLT science operations concept, a summary of the results from Year 1, and a discussion of lessons learned and where the science operations concept had to be adapted to achieve the current level of operations.© (2000) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.