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The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is expected to increase known small solar system object populations by an order of magnitude or more over the next decade, enabling a broad array of transformative solar system science…

The main scientific characteristic of VIMOS (VIsible Multi Object Spectrograph, to be placed on ESO Very Large Telescope) is its high multiplexing capability, allowing astronomers to obtain up to 800 spectra per exposure. To fully exploit…

The Cherenkov Telescope Array is a project that aims to exploring the highest energy region of electromagnetic spectrum. Two arrays, one for each hemisphere, will cover the full sky in a range from few tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV…

The VISTA Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea (VVV) survey is one of six public ESO surveys, and is now in its 4th year of observing. Although far from being complete, the VVV survey has already delivered many results, some directly connected…

Son Of X-Shooter (SOXS) is the new instrument for the ESO 3.5 m New Technology Telescope (NTT) in La Silla site (Chile) devised for the spectroscopic follow-up of transient sources. SOXS is composed by two medium resolution spectrographs…

Twilight studies have proved to be important tools to analyze the atmospheric structure with interesting consequences on the characterization of astronomical sites. Active discussions on this topic have been recently restarted in connection…

ESPRESSO is an extremely stable high-resolution spectrograph which is currently being developed for the ESO VLT. With its groundbreaking characteristics it is aimed to be a "science machine", i.e. a fully-integrated instrument to directly…

The data reduction pipeline for the VLT 2nd generation instrument X-Shooter uses a physical model to determine the optical distortion and derive the wavelength calibration. The parameters of this model describe the positions, orientations,…

As part of the Portuguese Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) program, a tracking radar and a double Wide Field of View Telescope system (4.3{\deg} x 2.3{\deg}) are being installed at the Pampilhosa da Serra Space Observatory (PASO) in…

(Abridged) We consider the scientific case for a large aperture (10-12m class) optical spectroscopic survey telescope with a field of view comparable to that of LSST. Such a facility could enable transformational progress in several areas…

Observing the ultraviolet (UV) sky for time-variable phenomena is one of the many exciting science goals that can be achieved by a relatively small aperture telescope in space. The Near Ultraviolet Transient Surveyor (NUTS) is a wide-field…

ESPRESSO is a new high-resolution ultra-stable spectrograph for the VLT, which had its first light on Telescope on November 27th, 2017. The instrument is installed in the Combined Coud\'{e} Laboratory and linked to the 4 Units of Telescope…

The ESO Public Survey Southern H-ATLAS Regions Ks-band Survey (SHARKS) comprises 300 square degrees of deep imaging at 2.2 microns (the Ks band) with the VISTA InfraRed CAMera (VIRCAM) at the 4-metre Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope…

Integral-field spectroscopy is the most effective method of exploiting the superb image quality of the ESO-VLT, allowing complex astrophysical processes to be probed on the angular scales currently accessible only for imaging data, but with…

Since May 2006, the two STELLA robotic telescopes at the Izana observatory in Tenerife, Spain, delivered an almost uninterrupted stream of scientific data. To achieve such a high level of autonomous operation, the replacement of all…

We describe the La Silla-QUEST (LSQ) Variability Survey. LSQ is a dedicated wide-field synoptic survey in the Southern Hemisphere, focussing on the discovery and study of transients ranging from low redshift (z < 0.1) SN Ia, Tidal…

The Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) is a proposed 12-meter segmented facility optimized for seeing limited observations in the visible and designed to operate both a high-multiplex multi-object spectrograph and a panoramic integral…

The 4MOST consortium is currently halfway through a Conceptual Design study for ESO with the aim to develop a wide-field (>3 square degree, goal >5 square degree), high-multiplex (>1500 fibres, goal 3000 fibres) spectroscopic survey…

The Ultraviolet Transient Astronomical Satellite (ULTRASAT) is a scientific UV space telescope that will operate in geostationary orbit. The mission, targeted to launch in 2024, is led by the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) in Israel…

Wide-field multi-object spectroscopy is a high priority for European astronomy over the next decade. Most 8-10m telescopes have a small field of view, making 4-m class telescopes a particularly attractive option for wide-field instruments.…