- All observers in Visitor Mode to La Silla or Paranal are required to fill out an “End of Mission” report.
- Annual user satisfaction campaigns targeting selected PIs in Service Mode.
- Member state representatives on the ESO Users Committee actively solicit feedback from their communities prior to each UC meeting.
- Some ¾ of PIs received at least half the data they expected. Only one PI reported getting no data, for their Group C (lowest priority) Service Mode program.
- At least ¾ of PIs reported new collaborations with astronomers from ESO member states and/or Australia as result of this access.
- Nearly every PI reported that 1 or more students would get to benefit from their ESO data, and over half indicated that 1 or more postdocs would benefit.
- Significant numbers of ARC-funded Future Fellows, Discovery Projects, and ASTRO 3D researchers are set to benefit from and/or helped support this access.
- Half of the PIs reported having given a conference talk or poster already based on their ESO results.
- The primary benefits cited for observing in Visitor Mode was the ability to make real-time decisions on changing the observing strategy, along with the opportunity to consult with the support astronomer at the telescope.
- Over 80% of PIs reported being “Satisfied” or “Very satisfied” with their overall ESO user experience.
- The most popular sections on AAL’s ESO Forum are the How to Apply and the Proposal Statistics and Allocations pages.
- The most common additional request from PIs was for a workshop on using ESO data and instruments.