Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

The Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors have revolutionized the field of gravitational wave astronomy with the direct detection of gravitational waves from the mergers of compact stellar remnants. During the second observation run from November 2016 - August 2017, the interferometers greatly increased the time-volume of the universe observed as compared to the first run, detected several black hole binary mergers, and saw the first coalescence of a binary neutron star. In this talk I will discuss the status of the instruments during the latest observation run, including challenges and successes in mitigating them. I will conclude with an outlook on upgrades that are currently being implemented in preparation for our next observation run.