1. The User Support Department Fernando Comerón DMD/USD

2. The User Support Department: what we do…
USD mission is to support Service Mode users of the ESO End-to-End System through Phase 2 preparation.
Assistance in the preparation of observing proposals and Phase 2 packages
Providing documentation and making tools available to users
Participation in the definition of tool requirements
Review and validation of Phase 2 material to optimize the use of telescope time
Preparation of medium-term schedule and reports to the mountain
Interfacing between observatory and users on run execution problems
On-site assistance to Service Mode operations
Observing run tracking
Observing run progress information to users
Helpdesk system to users for any questions related to service mode

3. …and who we are Department head: User Support Astronomers:
Fernando Comerón
User Support Astronomers:
Sabine Mengel Palle Møller
Ferdinando Patat Monika Petr-Gotzens
Francesca Primas Marina Rejkuba
Martino Romaniello Lowell Tacconi-Garman
Mario van den Ancker Markus Wittkowski
Magda Arnaboldi (as of 1st Sept.)
Support astronomer for the 2.2m:
Alexei Kniazev
Operations Support Scientists
Stephane Marteau Petra Nass

4. USD in numbers, 2005
SM continues to be the most popular mode at the VLT:
time requested SM/VM = 1.9 in P75 (in number of runs, SM/VM = 3.0)
10 support astronomers (11 as of 1st March, 12 as of 1st September)
12 instruments supported in SM (13 as of P76)
360 runs supported in P75 (1st April-30 September) (+ ~40 DDTs/MPI reserved)
3078 OBs submitted in P75 (+ MOS, DDT, MPI still to come)
206 different PIs in P75, including 72 new PIs
275 USD Problem Reporting System handled per month (average; peaks at Phase 2, 264 tickets received in the two weeks before deadline).
4 partly overlapping maternity/paternity leaves between November and now (extra workload on backup support astronomers well handled thanks to excellent team spirit!)

5. P2PP: latest improvements (thanks, DFS!!)
(From last year’s EWR:)
P2PP is now
More user-friendly
More powerful in capabilities
More helpful in preventing mistakes
by providing high level verification
Almost no instrument-specific
Easier to maintain
P2PP is from P75 on the only tool that users need to submit the Phase 2 package
Phase 2 submission procedures are now the same for La Silla and Paranal

6. Improving the reliability in operations
Complementing
the new capabilities in the Observation Handling System tools,
improvements in the Medium-Term Schedule report,
internal documentation effort
has led to increased operational robustness

7. Other 2004/2005 highlights USD support to MIDI operations from P73
SINFONI operations from P75
VISIR operations from P75
Bringing these instruments to regular operations has greatly benefited from lessons learned!

8. Outlook 2005/2006 Operations of AMBER VLTI operations with ATs
Preparing for surveys (VST, VISTA): setting up operations scenario and tool requirements