Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
Aug 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004eso..pres...21.&link_type=abstract
ESO Press Release, 08/2004
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
First Observations with New VLT Instrument Hold Great Promise [1]
Summary
The European Southern Observatory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Garching, Germany) and the Nederlandse Onderzoekschool Voor Astronomie (Leiden, The Netherlands), and with them all European astronomers, are celebrating the successful accomplishment of "First Light" for the Adaptive Optics (AO) assisted SINFONI ("Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observation in the Near-Infrared") instrument, just installed on ESO's Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory (Chile).
This is the first facility of its type ever installed on an 8-m class telescope, now providing exceptional observing capabilities for the imaging and spectroscopic studies of very complex sky regions, e.g. stellar nurseries and black-hole environments, also in distant galaxies.
Following smooth assembly at the 8.2-m VLT Yepun telescope of SINFONI's two parts, the Adaptive Optics Module that feeds the SPIFFI spectrograph, the "First Light" spectrum of a bright star was recorded with SINFONI in the early evening of July 9, 2004.
The following thirteen nights served to evaluate the performance of the new instrument and to explore its capabilities by test observations on a selection of exciting astronomical targets. They included the Galactic Centre region, already imaged with the NACO AO-instrument on the same telescope. Unprecedented high-angular resolution spectra and images were obtained of stars in the immediate vicinity of the massive central black hole. During the night of July 15 - 16, SINFONI recorded a flare from this black hole in great detail.
Other interesting objects observed during this period include galaxies with active nuclei (e.g., the Circinus Galaxy and NGC 7469), a merging galaxy system (NGC 6240) and a young starforming galaxy pair at redshift 2 (BX 404/405).
These first results were greeted with enthusiasm by the team of astronomers and engineers [2] from the consortium of German and Dutch Institutes and ESO who have worked on the development of SINFONI for nearly 7 years.
The work on SINFONI at Paranal included successful commissioning in June 2004 of the Adaptive Optics Module built by ESO, during which exceptional test images were obtained of the main-belt asteroid (22) Kalliope and its moon. Moreover, the ability was demonstrated to correct the atmospheric turbulence by means of even very faint "guide" objects (magnitude 17.5), crucial for the observation of astronomical objects in many parts of the sky.
SPIFFI - SPectrometer for Infrared Faint Field Imaging - was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) in Garching (Germany), in a collaboration with the Nederlandse Onderzoekschool Voor Astronomie (NOVA) in Leiden and the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (ASTRON), and ESO.
PR Photo 24a/04: SINFONI Adaptive Optics Module at VLT Yepun (June 2004) PR Photo 24b/04: SINFONI at VLT Yepun, now fully assembled (July 2004) PR Photo 24c/04: "First Light" image from the SINFONI Adaptive Optics Module PR Photo 24d/04: AO-corrected Image of a 17.5-magnitude Star PR Photo 24e/04: SINFONI undergoing Balancing and Flexure Tests at VLT Yepun PR Photo 24f/04: SINFONI "First Light" Spectrum of HD 130163 PR Photo 24g/04: Members of the SINFONI Adaptive Optics Module Commissioning Team PR Photo 24h/04: Members of the SPIFFI Commissioning Team PR Photo 24i/04: The Principle of Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) PR Photo 24j/04: The Orbital Motion of Linus around (22) Kalliope PR Photo 24k/04: SINFONI Observations of the Galactic Centre Region PR Photo 24l/04: SINFONI Observations of the Circinus Galaxy PR Photo 24m/04: SINFONI Observations of the AGN Galaxy NGC 7469 PR Photo 24n/04: SINFONI Observations of NGC 6240 PR Photo 24o/04: SINFONI Observations of the Young Starforming Galaxies BX 404/405 PR Video Clip 07/04: The Orbital Motion of Linus around (22) Kalliope SINFONI: A powerful and complex instrument
ESO PR Photo 24a/04
ESO PR Photo 24a/04
The SINFONI Adaptive Optics Module Commissioning Setup
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ESO PR Photo 24b/04
ESO PR Photo 24b/04
SINFONI at the VLT Yepun Cassegrain Focus
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Captions: ESO PR Photo 24a/04 shows the SINFONI Adaptive Optics Module, installed at the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN telescope during the first tests in June 2004. At this time, SPIFFI was not yet installed. The blue ring is the Adaptive Optics Module. The yellow parts, with a weight of 800 kg, simulate SPIFFI. The IR Test Imager is located inside the yellow ring. On ESO PR Photo 24b/04, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph SPIFFI in its cryogenic aluminium cylinder has now been attached.
A new and very powerful astronomical instrument, a world-leader in its field, has been installed on the Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory (Chile), cf. PR Photos 24a-b/04. Known as SINFONI ("Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observation in the Near-Infrared"), it was mounted in two steps at the Cassegrain focus of the 8.2-m VLT YEPUN telescope. First Light of the completed instrument was achieved on July 9, 2004 and various test observations during the subsequent commissioning phase were carried out with great success.
SINFONI has two parts, the Near Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph, also known as SPIFFI (SPectrometer for Infrared Faint Field Imaging), and the Adaptive Optics Module. SPIFFI was developed at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) (Garching, Germany), in a collaboration with the Nederlandse Onderzoekschool Voor Astronomie (NOVA) in Leiden, the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy (ASTRON) (The Netherlands), and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) (Garching, Germany). The Adaptive Optics (AO) Module was developed by ESO.
Once fully commissioned, SINFONI will provide adaptive-optics assisted Integral Field Spectroscopy in the near-infrared 1.1 - 2.45 µm waveband. This advanced technique provides simultaneous spectra of numerous adjacent regions in a small sky field, e.g., of an interstellar nebula, the stars in a dense stellar cluster or a galaxy. Astronomers refer to these data as "3D-spectra" or "data cubes" (i.e., one spectrum for each small area in the two-dimensional sky field), cf. Appendix A.
The SINFONI Adaptive Optics Module is based on a 60-element curvature system, similar to the Multi Application Curvature Adaptive Optics devices (MACAO), developed by the ESO Adaptive Optics Department and of which three have already been installed at the VLT (ESO PR 11/03); the last one in August 2004.
Provided a sufficiently bright reference source ("guide star") is available within 60 arcsec of the observed field, the SINFONI AO module will ultimately offer diffraction-limited images (resolution 0.050 arcsec) at a wavelength of 2 µm. At the centre of the field, partial correction can be performed with guide stars as faint as magnitude 17.5. In about 6-months' time, it will benefit from a sodium Laser Guide Star, achieving a much better sky coverage than what is now possible.
SPIFFI is a fully cryogenic near-infrared integral field spectrograph allowing observers to obtain simultaneously spectra of 2048 pixels within a 64 x 32 pixel field-of-view. In conjunction with the AO Module, it performs spectroscopy with slit-width sampling at the diffraction limit of an 8-m class telescope. For observations of very faint, extended celestial objects, the spatial resolution can be degraded so that both sensitivity and field-of-view are increased. SPIFFI works in the near-infrared wavelength range (1.1 - 2.45 µm) with a moderate spectral resolving power (R = 1500 to 4500). More information about the way SPIFFI functions will be found in Appendix A.
"First Light with SINFONI's Adaptive Optics Module
ESO PR Photo 24c/04
ESO PR Photo 24c/04
SINFONI AO "First Light" Image
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ESO PR Photo 24d/04
ESO PR Photo 24d/04
AO-corrected imag
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