Instrumentation at the ESO VLT

Alan F. M. Moorwood

doi:10.1117/12.786545

9 July 2008 Instrumentation at the ESO VLT

Alan F. M. Moorwood

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7014, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II; 701403 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.786545
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2008, Marseille, France

Abstract

ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) on Paranal mountain in northern Chile comprises four 8.2m diameter 'Unit Telescopes' (also used for interferometry); four 1.8m movable outrigger telescopes dedicated to interferometry and two survey telescopes - the 2.6m VST to be used in the visible and the 4m class, infrared VISTA telescope. Here I will give an overview of the accompanying large instrument development programme which has so far delivered 11 operational facility instruments for the UT's (leaving one visitor Nasmyth focus) and 2 major instruments for the interferometric focus. In addition, a laser guide star facility has been added on UT4 to generate artificial (sodium) stars for the adaptive optics assisted instruments NACO and SINFONI; the optical and infrared cameras for the survey telescopes are almost ready; four major second generation instruments for the UTs (X-Shooter, KMOS, MUSE and SPHERE) are at various stages of development throughout Europe; a fifth (high resolution spectrograph capable of 10cm/s radial velocity stability at the incoherent combined focus of the four 8m telescopes) is the subject of a Call for Proposals; UT4 is being converted to a fully adaptive telescope and three second generation interferometric instruments (MATISSE, GRAVITY and VSI) have been approved following successful completion of their Phase A studies.

Citation Download Citation

Alan F. M. Moorwood "Instrumentation at the ESO VLT", Proc. SPIE 7014, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II, 701403 (9 July 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.786545

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

;

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE