Welcome to the ESO Phase 2 Service Mode pages
​
If you are looking for information on the ESO Phase 2, it likely means that you received the ESO webletter and a very good news! It's time to prepare your observation. Here you will find all the information needed to prepare it. The first important information is the date of the submission deadline:
​
P109 Phase 2 deadline:
Thursday, 03 February 2022 at 12:00 CET
​
In all cases preparing the observation requires the preparation of observing blocks (the OB) through our Phase 2 preparation tool p2.
You may wonder what is exactly an OB. The OB is a codification of your observation that gives us all the details necessary to execute it for you. As such this must tell which instrument and observing mode you intend to use, which target(s) you intend to observe and what we should pay attention to. We will then take care for you of all the technicalities that transform your OB into a real observation at the telescope.
An OB is made of different templates, to fill in with the information regarding your target and the way you want to observe it, one or more images, the finding chart(s), to let us see where your target and possible guide or reference stars are, and a readme file with a clear but synthetic explanation of what you want us to do for you. Remember, we need to work together to maximize the scientific output of your observation. So tell us exactly what you need and we will help you obtaining it in the most efficient way. We want you to succeed!
​
The OB must be prepared through our web tool p2. We tried to make it user-friendly and self-explanatory, but we will guide you in these pages through all the steps for a successful Phase 2 preparation and we will give you all the necessary info.
If you are approaching the ESO instruments and our Phase 2 for the first time, we would recommend to get familiar with the basic concepts in our "Phase 2 for beginners" pages. These are intended to provide an overview of the Phase 2 process together with tutorials and tips. If instead, you are an expert user, you will find here all the manuals and technical details you might need.
Additional sources of information
If you do not find here an answer to your questions, we provide an additional sources of information with an answer to the most frequent questions, the ESO knowledgebase.
For any doubts or questions that and no answer in these pages or in the knowledgebase, you can contact us at support@eso.org.