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4MOST-ChANGES will target a legacy sample of active galactic nuclei (AGN), based on optical continuum variability and spectral energy distribution (SED) selection from several existing sur- veys, and ultimately complemented by Rubin LSST to: 1) constrain the low-MBH, low-L/LEdd end of the accretion and black hole (BH) density functions to z ~ 1, and, by extension, BH seed models; 2) investigate correlations among AGN (MBH, L/LEdd, ultraviolet slope, outflows, variability) and host properties (stellar age, metallicity, kinematics); 3) confirm/characterise rare BH subsamples (extreme variability, tidal disruption events, lensed, intervening absorption line systems) for detailed multi-wavelength follow-up studies., Published in The Messenger vol. 190, pp. 34-37, March 2023.

The Narrow-Field Mode (NFM) on the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) uses laser tomography to correct for atmospheric turbulence at optical wavelengths. Science verification of this new mode of the MUSE instrument took place in September 2018. The science verification observations were obtained in service mode. Out of 37 submitted proposals, 16 observing programmes were scheduled for a total of 43.5 hours of observations. The allocation assumed a seeing better than 0.8 arcseconds, i.e., the required atmospheric conditions to achieve effective adaptive optics correction. Some of the top priority programmes could not be executed because the reference stars were too faint to provide sufficient low-order adaptive optics corrections. As shown by the first results presented here, the NFM will enable advances across a range of scientific areas, for example, characterising substellar/planetary mass objects, globular clusters, and active galactic nuclei., Published in The Messenger vol. 176, pp. 16-19, June 2019.

Published in The Messenger vol. 171, pp. 49-52, March 2018.