The VLTI instrument GRAVITY will provide very powerful astrometry by combining the light from four tele- scopes for two objects simultaneously. It will measure the angular separation between the two astronomical objects to a precision of 10 μas. This corresponds to a differential optical path difference (dOPD) between the targets of few nanometers and the paths within the interferometer have to be maintained stable to that level. For this purpose, the novel metrology system of GRAVITY will monitor the internal dOPDs by means of phase- shifting interferometry. We present the four-step phase-shifting concept of the metrology with emphasis on the method used for calibrating the phase shifts. The latter is based on a phase-step insensitive algorithm which unambiguously extracts phases in contrast to other methods that are strongly limited by non-linearities of the phase-shifting device. The main constraint of this algorithm is to introduce a robust ellipse fitting routine. Via this approach we are able to measure phase shifts in the laboratory with a typical accuracy of λ=2000 or 1 nm of the metrology wavelength.
The Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) is the next-generation adaptive optics near-IR imager and
spectrograph for the Cassegrain focus of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) Unit Telescope 4, which will soon make full
use of the Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF). It is a high-Strehl AO-assisted instrument that will use the Deformable
Secondary Mirror (DSM) and the new Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF). The project has been approved for
construction and has entered its preliminary design phase. ERIS will be constructed in a collaboration including the Max-
Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich and the Osservatorio
Astrofisico di Arcetri and will offer 1 - 5 μm imaging and 1 - 2.5 μm integral field spectroscopic capabilities with a high
Strehl performance. Wavefront sensing can be carried out with an optical high-order NGS Pyramid wavefront sensor, or
with a single laser in either an optical low-order NGS mode, or with a near-IR low-order mode sensor. Due to its highly
sensitive visible wavefront sensor, and separate near-IR low-order mode, ERIS provides a large sky coverage with its 1’
patrol field radius that can even include AO stars embedded in dust-enshrouded environments. As such it will replace,
with a much improved single conjugated AO correction, the most scientifically important imaging modes offered by
NACO (diffraction limited imaging in the J to M bands, Sparse Aperture Masking and Apodizing Phase Plate (APP)
coronagraphy) and the integral field spectroscopy modes of SINFONI, whose instrumental module, SPIFFI, will be
upgraded and re-used in ERIS. As part of the SPIFFI upgrade a new higher resolution grating and a science detector
replacement are envisaged, as well as PLC driven motors. To accommodate ERIS at the Cassegrain focus, an extension
of the telescope back focal length is required, with modifications of the guider arm assembly. In this paper we report on
the status of the baseline design. We will also report on the main science goals of the instrument, ranging from exoplanet
detection and characterization to high redshift galaxy observations. We will also briefly describe the SINFONI-SPIFFI
upgrade strategy, which is part of the ERIS development plan and the overall project timeline.
The Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) is the next-generation instrument planned for the Very Large
Telescope (VLT) and the Adaptive Optics Facility (AOF)1. It is an AO assisted instrument that will make use of the
Deformable Secondary Mirror and the new Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF), and it is designed for the Cassegrain
focus of the telescope UT4. The project just concluded its conceptual design phase and is awaiting formal approval to
continue to the next phase. ERIS will offer 1-5 μm imaging and 1-2.5 μm integral field spectroscopic capabilities with
high Strehl performance. As such it will replace, with much improved single conjugated AO correction, the most
scientifically important and popular observing capabilities currently offered by NACO2 (diffraction limited imaging in JM
band, Sparse Aperture Masking and APP coronagraphy) and by SINFONI3, whose instrumental module, SPIFFI, will
be re-used in ERIS. The Cassegrain location and the performance requirements impose challenging demands on the
project, from opto-mechanical design to cryogenics to the operational concept. In this paper we describe the baseline
design proposed for ERIS and discuss these technical challenges, with particular emphasis on the trade-offs and the
novel solutions proposed for building ERIS.
LUCI (former LUCIFER) is the full cryogenic near-infrared multi-object spectrograph and imager at the LBT. It presently allows for seeing limited imaging and multi-object spectroscopy at R~2000-4000 in a 4x4arcmin2 FOV from 0.9 to 2.5 micron. We report on the instrument performance and the lessons learned during the first two years on sky from a technical and operational point of view. We present the upcoming detector upgrade to Hawaii-2 RG arrays and the operating modes to utilize the binocular mode, the LBT facility AO system for diffraction limited imaging as well as to use the wide-field AO correction afforded by the multi-laser GLAO System ARGOS in multi-object spectroscopy.
GRAVITY is a second generation VLTI instrument for high-precision narrow-angle astrometry and phase-referenced
interferometric imaging in the astronomical K-band. The cryostat of the beam combiner instrument provides the required
temperatures for the various subunits ranging from 40K to 290K with a milli-Kelvin temperature stability for some
selected units. The bath cryostat is cooled with liquid nitrogen and makes use of the exhaust gas to cool the main optical
bench to an intermediate temperature of 240K. The fringe tracking detector will be cooled separately by a single-stage
pulse tube cooler to a temperature of 40K. The pulse tube cooler is optimized for minimum vibrations. In particular its
warm side is connected to the 80K reservoir of the LN2 cryostat to minimize the required input power. All temperature
levels are actively stabilized by electric heaters. The cold bench is supported separately from the vacuum vessel and the
liquid nitrogen reservoir to minimize the transfer of acoustic noise onto the instrument.
The NIP is a near infrared imaging photometer that is currently under investigation for the Euclid space mission
in context of ESA's 2015 Cosmic Vision program. Together with the visible camera (VIS) it will form the basis of
the weak lensing measurements for Euclid. The NIP channel will perform photometric imaging in 3 near infrared
bands (Y, J, H) covering a wavelength range from ~ 0.9 to 2 μm over a field of view (FoV) of ~ 0.5 deg2. With
the required limiting point source magnitude of 24 mAB (5 sigma) the NIP channel will be used to determine
the photometric redshifts of over 2 billion galaxies collected over a wide survey area of 20 000 deg2. In addition
to the photometric measurements, the NIP channel will deliver unique near infrared (NIR) imaging data over
the entire extragalactic sky, enabling a wide variety of ancillary astrophysical and cosmological studies. In this
paper we will present the results of the study carried out by the Euclid Imaging Consortium (EIC) during the
Euclid assessment phase.
GRAVITY is an adaptive optics assisted Beam Combiner for the second generation VLTI instrumentation. The
instrument will provide high-precision narrow-angle astrometry and phase-referenced interferometric imaging in the
astronomical K-band for faint objects. We describe the wide range of science that will be tackled with this instrument,
highlighting the unique capabilities of the VLTI in combination with GRAVITY. The most prominent goal is to observe
highly relativistic motions of matter close to the event horizon of Sgr A*, the massive black hole at center of the Milky
Way. We present the preliminary design that fulfils the requirements that follow from the key science drivers: It includes
an integrated optics, 4-telescope, dual feed beam combiner operated in a cryogenic vessel; near-infrared wavefrontsensing
adaptive optics; fringe-tracking on secondary sources within the field of view of the VLTI and a novel metrology
concept. Simulations show that 10 μas astrometry within few minutes is feasible for a source with a magnitude of
mK = 15 like Sgr A*, given the availability of suitable phase reference sources (mK = 10). Using the same setup, imaging of mK = 18 stellar sources in the interferometric field of view is possible, assuming a full night of observations and the corresponding UV coverage of the VLTI.
The LUCIFER-MOS unit is the full cryogenic mask-exchange unit for the near-infrared multi-object spectrograph
LUCIFER at the Large Binocular Telescope. We present the design and functionality of this unique device. In LUCIFER
the masks are stored, handled, and placed in the focal plane under cryogenic conditions at all times, resulting in very low
thermal background emission from the masks during observations. All mask manipulations are done by a novel
cryogenic mask handling robot that can individually address up to 33 fixed and user-provided masks and place them in
the focal plane with high accuracy. A complete mask exchange cycle is done in less than five minutes and can be run in
every instrument position and state reducing instrument setup time during science observations to a minimum. Exchange
of old and new MOS masks is likewise done under cryogenic conditions using a unique exchange drive mechanism and
two auxiliary cryostats that attach to the main instrument cryostat.
LUCIFER 1 is the rst of two identical camera-spectrograph units installed at the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope)
on Mount Graham in Arizona. Its commissioning took place between September 2008 and November
2009 and has immediately been followed by science operations since December 2009.
LUCIFER has a 4x4 arcminute eld of view. It is equipped with a 2048x2048 pixel HAWAII-2 array, suitable
lters (broad-band z, J, H, K & Ks plus 12 medium and narrow band near-infrared lters) and three gratings for
spectroscopy for a resolution of up to 15000. LUCIFER has 3 cameras: two specic for seeing limited imaging
(the N3.75 camera, with 0.12"/pixel) and spectroscopy (the N1.8 camera, with 0.25"/pixel) and one for diraction
limited observations (the N30 camera). We report here about the completed seeing-limited commissioning, thus
using only two of the cameras.
We present the second-generation VLTI instrument GRAVITY, which currently is in the preliminary design phase.
GRAVITY is specifically designed to observe highly relativistic motions of matter close to the event horizon of Sgr A*,
the massive black hole at center of the Milky Way. We have identified the key design features needed to achieve this
goal and present the resulting instrument concept. It includes an integrated optics, 4-telescope, dual feed beam combiner
operated in a cryogenic vessel; near infrared wavefront sensing adaptive optics; fringe tracking on secondary sources
within the field of view of the VLTI and a novel metrology concept. Simulations show that the planned design matches
the scientific needs; in particular that 10µas astrometry is feasible for a source with a magnitude of K=15 like Sgr A*,
given the availability of suitable phase reference sources.
LUCIFER is a NIR spectrograph and imager (wavelength range 0.9 to 2.5 micron) for the Large Binocular
Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham, Arizona, working at cryogenic temperatures of less than 70K. Two instruments
are built by a consortium of five German institutes and will be mounted at the bent Gregorian foci of the two
individual telescope mirrors. Three exchangable cameras are available for imaging and spectroscopy: two of
them are optimized for seeing-limited conditions, a third camera for the diffraction limited case will be used with
the LBT adaptive secondary mirror working. Up to 33 exchangeable masks are available for longslit or multi-object
spectroscopy (MOS) over the full field of view (FOV). Both MOS-units (LUCIFER 1 and LUCIFER
2) and the auxiliary cryostats together with the control electronics have been completed. The observational
software-package is in its final stage of preparation.
After the total integration of LUCIFER 1 extensive tests were done for all electro-mechanical functions and
the verification of the instrument started. The results of the tests are presented in detail and are compared with
the specifications.
LUCIFER (LBT NIR Spectrograph Utility with Camera and Integral-Field
Unit for Extragalactic Research) is a NIR spectrograph and imager for
the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope) working in the wavelength range from 0.9 to 2.5 microns. Two instruments are built by a consortium of
five German institutes (Landessternwarte Heidelberg (LSW), Max Planck
Institut for Astronomy (MPIA), Max Planck Institut for Extraterrestric Physics (MPE), Astronomical Institut of the Ruhr-University Bochum (AIRUB) and Fachhochschule for Technics and Design Mannheim (FHTG).
All major components for the first instrument have been manufactured or are in the final stage of procurement. While integration and testing of LUCIFER 1 started in spring 2006 at the MPIA in Heidelberg, the cryostat for LUCIFER 2 has been sent to the MPE in Garching for system integration tests of the MOS-unit and testing of the mask cabinet exchange. The control electronics for the basic instrument has been manufactured, the MOS control electronics has been integrated and is being debugged. The MOS control software is under development by AIRUB. Fabrication and integration of components for LUCIFER 2 have started.
The LUCIFER MOS unit has been designed to exchange long-slit and multi-slit masks between two mask storage cabinets and the focal plane area. In combination with auxiliary cryostats, the MOS unit also permits the exchange of cold mask cabinets between LUCIFER and the auxiliary cryostats. Main functional components of the MOS unit are: a focal plane interface accepting the active mask, a mask handling unit transporting the masks between the focal plane mount and their storage locations, a stationary and an exchangeable cabinet holding 10 longslit and 23 multi-slit masks respectively, the translation drives for the exchangeable cabinet and the mask handling unit, and the mask locking unit securing the masks in their cabinets. For mask cabinet exchange, the LUCIFER cryostat as well as the auxiliary cryostats are equipped with 32 cm clear diameter gate valves. A test cryostat has been built to test all MOS unit functions at LN2 temperature. Most of the MOS unit components have been completed. System tests at ambient have started. First results are presented.
We describe the design of a 2nd generation instrument for the ESO VLT which will deliver a unique multiple deployable integral field capability in the near-infrared (1-2.5μm). The science drivers for the instrument are presented and linked to the functional specification. The baseline instrument concept is described with emphasis on technological innovations. Detailed discussions of specific technologies, and ongoing prototype studies, are described in separate papers.
LUCIFER (LBT NIR Spectrograph Utility with Camera and Integral-Field
Unit for Extragalactic Research) is a NIR spectrograph and imager for
the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope) working in the wavelength range from 0.9 to 2.5 microns. The instrument is to be built by a consortium of five german institutes (Landessternwarte Heidelberg (LSW), Max Planck Institut for Astronomy (MPIA), Max Planck Institut for Extraterrestric Physics (MPE), Astronomical Institut of the Ruhr-University Bochum (AIRUB) and Fachhochschule for Technics and Design Mannheim (FHTG)). LUCIFER will be one of the first light instruments of the LBT and will be available to the community at the end of 2005. A copy of the instrument for the second LBT mirror follows about one year later.
The paper presents a brief status report of the procured and built
hardware, of the workpackages already carried out and summarizes the ongoing work in progress.
Multi-integral-field spectrographs for near-infrared observations require a large number of complex cryogenic mechanisms to select source images in the telescope field of view which are then re-format on the spectrograph entrance slit. Source selection can be achieved in several ways, but the two methods most adequate for large fields and cryogenic environment are positioning of an optical element in the telescope field to pick off the source image, or steering a mirror located in a pupil image to deflect the light from a source into relay optics. The first solution permits high flexibility in source selection at the cost of large mechanical travels. The second solution limits the source selection to one per pre-defined sub-field, but gets by with small mirror tilts. Higher flexibility can be regained for the second solution by assigning different sub-field sizes to the steering mirrors in the central and in the peripheral areas of the field of view. We present a solution for a cryogenic steering mirror unit with a mirror diameter of about 20 mm and tilt angles of a few degrees, appropriate for source selection in a 1 arc minute field of an 8 m class telescope. The gimbaled mirror can be tilted about two perpendicular axes in the tangential plane of the mirror apex. The mirror is driven by two Nanomotors, and the motor strokes are measured by LVDTs. Motors and sensors are specified for operation at LHe temperatures.
CONICA has been developed by a German consortium under an ESO contract, to serve together with the VLT adaptive optics system NAOS as a high resolution multimode NIR camera and spectrograph. We report on final laboratory performance tests carried out during the integration period with the adaptive optics. Apart from an outline of the capabilities of this multimode instrument such as high resolution imaging, spectroscopy, Fabry-Perot and a sophisticated internal flexure compensation, we will turn our attention to a detailed examination of the detector characteristics to fully exploit the potential of the ALADDIN array.
We describe a proposed 2nd generation instrument (KMOS) for the ESO VLT which will deliver a unique multiple integral field capability in the near-infrared (1-2.5 μm). The science drivers for such an instrument are presented and linked to the functional specification. The overall instrument concept is discussed in the context of two proposed solutions for delivering a deployable integral field capability. Detailed discussions of these two approaches, and ongoing prototype studies, are described in separate papers.
LUCIFER (LBT NIR-Spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral-Field Unit for Extragalactic Research) is a NIR spectrograph and imager for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham, Arizona. It is built by a consortium of five German institutes and will be one of the first light instruments for the LBT. Later, a second copy for the second mirror of the telescope will follow.
Both instruments will be mounted at the bent Gregorian foci of the two individual telescope mirrors. The final design of the instrument is presently in progress.
LUCIFER will work at cryogenic temperature in the wavelength range from 0.9 μm to 2.5 μm. It is equipped with three exchangeable cameras for imaging and spectroscopy: two of them are optimized for seeing-limited conditions, the third camera for the diffraction-limited
case with the LBT adaptive secondary mirror working. The spectral resolution will allow for OH suppression. Up to 33 exchangeable masks will be available for longslit and multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) over the full field of view (FOV). The detector will be a Rockwell HAWAII-2 HgCdTe-array.
We present a system for the exchange and handling of cold field masks in LUCIFER, the near infrared camera and spectrograph for the LBT. Inside the LUCIFER cryostat, 10 field-stop and long-slit masks, and 23 multi-slit masks are stored in a stationary and an exchangeable cabinet respectively. With LUCIFER at operating temperature, the exchangeable cabinet with its multi-slit
masks can be transferred from the LUCIFER cryostat to an auxiliary cryostat, and a second cabinet harboring the newly made, pre-cooled masks can be transferred back to LUCIFER from a second
auxiliary cryostat. Inside LUCIFER, a robot transports the individual masks from their storage position in the cabinet to the focal plane and inserts them in a mask mount where they are centered on two pins. The position accuracy of the masks in the focal plane is anticipated to be better than ± 10 μm. A mechanism which locks the masks in their cabinets and releases only the one connected to the transport robot permits mask exchange in arbitrary
orientation of the cryostat.
KMOS is a cryogenic multi-object near-infrared spectrograph for the VLT. It will be equipped with about 20 deployable integral field units (IFUs) which can be positioned anywhere in the 7.2 arcmin diameter field o the VLT Nasmyth focus by a cryogenic robot. We describe IFUs using micro lens arrays and optical fibers to arrange the two-dimensional fields from the IFUs on the spectrograph entrance slit. Each micro-lens array is mounted in a spider arm which also houses the pre-optics with a cold stop. The spider arms are positioned by a cryogenic robot which is built around the image plane. For the IFUs, two solutions are considered: monolithic mirco-lens arrays with fibers attached to the back where the entrance pupil is imaged, and tapered fibers with integrated lenses which are bundled together to form a lens array. The flexibility of optical fibers relaxes boundary conditions for integration of the instrument components. On the other hand, FRD and geometric characteristics of optical fibers leads to higher AΩ accepted by the spectrograph. Conceptual design of the instrument is presented as well as advantages and disadvantages of the fiber IFUs.
LUCIFER is a full cryogenic NIR spectrograph and imager to be built by a consortium of fiber institutes, Max Planck Institut fuer Astronomie in Heidelberg, Max Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik in Garching, Astronomisches Institut der Ruhr Universitaet Bochum and Fachhochschule fuer Technik und Gestaltung in Mannheim. The instrument has been selected as one of three first-light instruments for the Large Binocular Telescope on Mt. Graham, Arizona which first mirror becomes available to the community in early 2003. The second mirror and a second more or less identical spectrograph/imager follows 18 months later. Both LUCIFER instruments will be mounted dat the bent Gregorian foci of the two individual LBT-mirrors and include six observing six observing modes: seeing and diffraction limited imaging, seeing and diffraction limited longslit spectroscopy, seeing limited multi-object spectroscopy and integral-field spectroscopy. The detector will be a Rockwell HAWAII-2 HgCdTe-array with a pixel-size of 18(mu) .
LUCIFER-MOS is a liquid nitrogen cooled near IR multi object spectrograph imaging 20 freely selectable sub-fields of about 2.2 inch by 1.8 inch and 6 by 4 image elements each on the entrance slit of the LUCIFER spectrograph. The image elements are re-arranged by 480 fused silica fibers of 50 micrometers core diameter and 100 micrometers total diameter with integrated, hexagonal lenslets of 0.6 mm width corresponding to a 0.3 inch field. The pre-optics magnifies the telescope image by a factor 3.3, thus adapting the telescope plate scale to the lenslet scale, and additionally providing a cold stop. The post-optics converts the f/3 fiber output beam to the f/15 beam accepted by the spectrograph. Each of the 20 6 by 4 fiber arrays together with its pre-optics is mounted in a spider arm which can be freely positioned within the 200 mm diameter field of view by a cryogenic robot. The robot performs three rotational movements to position the spider arms and is driven by cold stepper motors. The spider arms are locked in their positions by two permanent magnets each. Their magnetic field can be compensated by coils to unlock the arms and move them across the field of view.
The Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) is a complex system, made of a large number of separated elements. To prepare an early successful operation, it will require a period of extensive testing and verification to ensure that the many devices involved work properly together, and can produce meaningful data. This paper describes the concept chosen for the VLTI commissioning instrument, LEONARDO da VINCI, and details its functionalities. It is a fiber based two-way beam combiner, associated with an artificial star and an alignment verification unit. The technical commissioning of the VLTI is foreseen as a stepwise process: fringes will first be obtained with the commissioning instrument in an autonomous mode (no other parts of the VLTI involved); then the VLTI telescopes and optical trains will be tested in autocollimation; finally fringes will be observed on the sky.
A high resolution near IR camera (CONICA) for the firs VLT unit is under development, which will provide diffraction limited spatial resolution being combined with the adaptive optics system NAOS. CONICA serves as a multi-mode instrument for the wavelength region between 1.0 and 5.0 micrometers , offering broad band, narrow band or Fabry Perot direct imaging capabilities, polarimetric modes using Wollaston prism or wire grid analyzers and long slit spectroscopy up to a spectral resolution of about 1000 per two pixel. We presented a first concept of CONICA in 1995. In the mean time, large parts of the instrument have been manufactured, the cryostat and the adapter have been finished and first cryogenic test have been performed. This paper describes the actual design and status of development of CONICA focusing on those aspects which have not been described in detail before or the design of which have been changed in the mean time.
PRIMA (instrument for Phase-Referenced Imaging and Microarcsecond Astrometry) is a conceptual study for a single-baseline dual-feed instrument for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), which is under construction by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in Chile. The goals of PRIMA include narrow-angle astrometry with a precision of 10 μas over an arc of 10", and imaging of faint sources with the full sensitivity of the 8 m telescopes in the VLT array. Key scientific programs that can be carried out with PRIMA in imaging mode include observations of active galactic nuclei, the Galactic Center, stars, and circumstellar matter. Scientific drivers for the astrometry are searches for planets and low-mass stellar companions, binary stars, dynamics of clusters, and (relative) parallaxes. We list the main performance requirements for PRIMA, present system architectures for the dual-beam system, and discuss limitations of the interferometric field-of-view.
An infrared camera called CONICA, for use at the first unit of the VLT (ESO), for diffraction limited observations in the spectral range from 1 - 5 micrometers is being built up by a consortium of the MPI fur Astronomie (Heidelberg, Germany) and the MPI fur Extraterrestrische Physik (Garching, Germany). The camera, which originally was planned for the Coude focus of the single telescope, now -- after postponement of the Coude trail -- is designed for application at the Nasmyth focus. Combined with an adaptive optics system this camera offers diffraction limited direct imaging capabilities. Imaging spectroscopy using a cold Fabry Perot etalon is offered as well as spectroscopy by means of grisms and imaging polarimetry. Optics and cryo- mechanics are designed for implementation of a 1024 X 1024 InSb IR-array. The imaging scale can be adapted for correct sampling of the wavelength dependent diffraction limited beam between 13.6 and 109 mas/pixel corresponding to a field of views between 13.9 and (phi) 73 arcsec. The spatial resolution is between 32 mas in J band (centered at 1.25 micrometers ) and 116 mas in M band (centered at 5 micrometers ). The instrument will be completely remote controlled.
SHARP I and SHARP II are near infrared cameras for high-angular-resolution imaging. Both cameras are built around a 256 X 256 pixel NICMOS 3 HgCdTe array from Rockwell which is sensitive in the 1 - 2.5 micrometers range. With a 0.05"/pixel scale, they can produce diffraction limited K-band images at 4-m-class telescopes. For a 256 X 256 array, this pixel scale results in a field of view of 12.8" X 12.8" which is well suited for the observation of galactic and extragalactic near-infrared sources. Photometric and low resolution spectroscopic capabilities are added by photometric band filters (J, H, K), narrow band filters ((lambda) /(Delta) (lambda) approximately equals 100) for selected spectral lines, and a CVF ((lambda) /(Delta) (lambda) approximately equals 70). A cold shutter permits short exposure times down to about 10 ms. The data acquisition electronics permanently accepts the maximum frame rate of 8 Hz which is defined by the detector time constants (data rate 1 Mbyte/s). SHARP I has been especially designed for speckle observations at ESO's 3.5 m New Technology Telescope and is in operation since 1991. SHARP II is used at ESO's 3.6 m telescope together with the adaptive optics system COME-ON + since 1993. A new version of SHARP II is presently under test, which incorporates exchangeable camera optics for observations with scales of 0.035, 0.05, and 0.1"/pixel. The first scale extends diffraction limited observations down to the J-band, while the last one provides a larger field of view. To demonstrate the power of the cameras, images of the galactic center obtained with SHARP I, and images of the R136 region in 30 Doradus observed with SHARP II are presented.
We present interferograms and reconstructed images obtained with the MPE imaging beam combiner simulator COSI.The purpose of COSI is to simulate the imaging beam combiner at the coherent focus of the ESO VLTI in multi-speckle mode of under conditions of partial or full correction of the single telescope wave front by adaptive optics. The data discussed here were taken in multi-speckle and single speckle mode. COSI consists of a 1-m telescope and a near- IR continuum light source to simulate the radiation from astronomical objects. Two flat mirrors allow us to use one half of the telescope as a transmitter and the other half as a receiver. In the receiving focus we have installed the MPE speckle camera SHARP, which uses a HgCdTe 2562 NICMOS 3 array. A pupil mask over the aperture allows us to simulate various telescope configurations like the one with a beam compression factor of 100 as it will be used for the ESO VLT interferometer. COSI is used to explore NIR array detector properties and their suitability for interferometric measurements and to generate data to develop and test image reconstruction algorithms. First interferograms of single and multiple objects were taken early 1993. Employing various deconvolution and Fourier-inversion methods, a diffraction limited image of the pin-hole sources can be successfully recovered which experimentally demonstrates the feasibility of interferometric imaging with a large monolithic beam combiner. Thus, we have demonstrated that COSI is an excellent test bed to investigate methods of image recovery and to investigate how the methods are influenced by effects like atmospheric turbulence, expected optical imperfections and detector characteristics. Early this year (1994) we installed hot-air seeing simulators for individual subapertures. This allows us now to take interferograms in multi- speckle mode.
We present the layout and construction of main parts of the imaging beam combiner simulator experiment COSI, which has been set up at the Max Planck Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik. The purpose of COSI is to simulate the imaging beam combiner at the coherent focus of the ESO VLTI. Main objectives of the experiment are to explore near-infrared array detector properties and to generate data for testing (developing) image reconstruction algorithms. COSI consists of a 1-m telescope and a near-infrared continuum light source to simulate the radiation from astronomical objects. Close to the focal plane, the beam is split into two foci. The beam is relayed between the two parts of the telescope by a roof mirror. Between the telescope and the retroreflector in the quasi-parallel beam, a pupil mask allows us to define a number of beams, thus simulating various telescope configurations with a beam compression factor of 100. The light from the pin-hole source is transmitted through the telescope system to the near-infrared camera placed in the receiving focus. The wavefront in the beams can be influenced by seeing simulators. Presently we use hot air devices, but for the final configuration we aim at deformable mirrors to have detailed control over the wavefront. Experimental results on image recovery achieved up to now are reported elsewhere in this conference.
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