ESO Users Committee: Poll 2006 - Experience with ESO

           Dear Colleague,

           I would highly appreciate, if you could spend a few minutes for filling out the questionnaire below.
           It will facilitate the preparation of the next meeting of the ESO Users Committee in April 2006,
           and help me acting as an interface between the German users and ESO.

           Please note, that you do not need to fill out the questionnaire completely.
           Ignore any questions which are not relevant for you !

           The material submitted will be treated strictly confidential.

After submission, an e-mail of confirmation will be sent to your address
e-mail:

1 - How do you rank the general information offered by ESO through:

	excellent	good	acceptable	insufficient
- The WEB
- The Messenger
- Press releases etc.

Any comments:

    2 - Proposal preparation, submission and evaluation

     a - The resources in the Call for proposals given are for the preparation of the proposal
           complete      partly complete      incomplete      useless

b - The documentation for writing the proposals provided in the manuals is
excellent sufficient incomplete lousy

c - The documentation for writing the proposals provided on the ESO WEB is
excellent sufficient incomplete lousy

           Any comments with respect to 2a-c ?


     d - Did you experience any problem with the proposal submission and WEB letters (e.g. notification) ?
           NO
           YES
           If yes, which one(s) ?

     e - OPC decisions are always a matter of debate. What is your general opinion about the work of the OPC
           and the comments you receive from the panels ?
           excellent      acceptable      could be better      could be much better      a desaster

f - Any further comments as for the proposal submission, preparation and evaluation ?

    3 - Visitor mode observations

     a - The trip to Paranal and/or La Silla takes some time (up to 48h from door to door).
           Is the way this is arranged by ESO satisfactory ? If not, what can be improved and how ?

b - Any comments with respect to your stay at the observatory (food, dormitories etc.) ?

c - How was the introduction at the telescope and assistance during the night ?
excellent sufficient incomplete lousy

     d - Did you receive a complete data set (incl. calibration data) and were the data delivered timely ?
           YES
             NO
           Comments ?

e - Any further comments as for visitor mode observations ?

    4 - Service mode observations

     a - Phase II preparation: Did you have sufficient time to prepare your phase II material (deadline) ?
           YES
             NO
           Further comments ?

b - In case you submitted a waiver request, how was your experience ?

     c - Could you sufficiently well monitor your service mode observations ?
           YES
             NO
           If not, can you suggest a way to improve ?

     d - Did you receive a complete data set within your specifications (incl. calibration data)
           and were the data delivered timely ?
           YES
             NO
           If not, why ?

e - Are you satisfied of the service mode observations in general ?

5 - Are there any specific questions you would like to be addressed at the UC ?

    Questions relevant to this year general topic: "2nd generation of VLT instruments, ALMA, and ELTs"

    6 - How would you qualify your own knowledge of the current ESO instrumentation (VLT, La Silla) ?
          excellent good fairly good poor

    7 - How would you qualify your own knowledge of the future generation of La Silla instruments ?
          excellent good fairly good poor

    8 - How would you qualify your own knowledge of the future generation of VLT instruments ?
          excellent good fairly good poor

    9 - How do you keep informed about the instrumental developments at ESO ?
            - mostly via the ESO web page
            - mostly via the web outside the ESO site
            - at La Silla or Paranal when observing
            - discussing with colleagues

10 - Which ones of the following 2nd generation instruments do you know and/or are directly related to YOUR science ?

	YES	NO
- KMOS
- MUSE
- PlanetFinder
- X-shooter
- HAWK-I
- PRIMA

11 - What is the importance of the following items for YOUR FUTURE (5 years) science at ESO ?

	essential	important	secondary	irrelevant
- Multi-objects capability
- Quick-look pipeline
- Science-quality pipeline
- Wavelength coverage
- High spatial resolution
- High spectral resolution
- 3D spectroscopy
- Access to mm-wavelengths
- Accurate simulation tools

    12 - Are there any specific questions you would like to be addressed at the UC about the La Silla
             and Paranal future generations of the instruments, about ALMA and about the development of
             the ESO Extremely Large Telescope ?

Thank you very much for filling out the Poll 2006 !!! - Jochen Heidt