Currently Available AO Instruments
🗂️ This page provides .ini configuration files tailored for various instruments: ERIS, HARMONI, MAVIS, MORFEO, MUSE, SOUL, SPHERE.
Click here to access an interface that lets you generate custom .ini files by selecting your instrument and parameter values.
➡️ERIS (Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph)
The Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph (ERIS) is a near-infrared instrument at the Cassegrain focus of UT4. ERIS instrument has two science cameras; SPIFFIER, an integral field spectrograph covering J to K bands, and NIX, an imager covering J to M bands.
(More information can be found at: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/eris.html)
AO modes used:
🔵 Single Conjugate Adaptive Optics (SCAO)
Guide star types:
- Natural Guide Star (NGS): requires guide star with
R<11mag, either on and off-axis (up to60"possible, although<30"recommended due to anisoplanatism) - Laser Guide Star (LGS): requires tip-tilt star within
60"with R magnitude in the range7–18mag . Laser spot is initially on-axis, moving relative to target as telescope offsets are applied.
Parameter file (.ini format) - SCAO NGS ✴️
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Loading...ERIS SCAO NGS - PSFs
Parameter file (.ini format) - SCAO LGS ✳️
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Loading...ERIS SCAO LGS - PSFs
➡️HARMONI (High Angular Resolution Monolithic Optical and Near-infrared Integral field spectrograph)
HARMONI will be one of the first generation of ELT instruments and will transform the visible and near-infrared astronomy landscape. This workhorse instrument, a 3D spectrograph, will disperse the light from astronomical objects into its component wavelengths, allowing scientists to study them in fine detail and go beyond what we can achieve with current spectrographs.
(Text sourced from: https://elt.eso.org/instrument/HARMONI/)
AO modes used:
🔵 Single Conjugate Adaptive Optics (SCAO)
🟣 Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO)
Parameter file (.ini format) - SCAO NGS ✴️
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Loading...Parameter file (.ini format) - MCAO ✨
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Coming soon...
➡️MAVIS (MCAO-Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph)
MAVIS is intended to be installed at the Nasmyth A focus of the VLT UT4
(replacing Hawk-I/GRAAL) with the AOF and is made of two main parts:
an Adaptive Optics (AO) system that cancels the image blurring induced by atmospheric turbulence and its post focal instrumentation, an imager and an IFU spectrograph, both covering the visible part of the light spectrum.
(Text sourced from: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/develop/instruments/MAVIS.html#BasSpec)
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Loading...➡️MICADO (Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations)
A first-generation ELT instrument, MICADO will take high-resolution images of the Universe at near-infrared wavelengths. This makes the instrument ideal for identifying exoplanets, but also for resolving individual stars in other galaxies and investigating the mysterious centre of the Milky Way.
(Text sourced from: https://elt.eso.org/instrument/MICADO/)
AO mode used (AO) :
🔵 Single Conjugate Adaptive Optics (SCAO)
Parameter file (.ini format) - SCAO NGS ✴️
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Loading...➡️MORFEO (Multiconjugate adaptive Optics Relay For ELT Observations)
As a first-generation ELT instrument, MORFEO, will help compensate for the distortion of light caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere which makes astronomical images blurry. MORFEO will not make observations itself; rather, it will enable other instruments, such as MICADO in the first instance, to take exceptional images.
(Text sourced from: https://elt.eso.org/instrument/MORFEO/)
Parameter file (.ini format) - MCAO ✨
AO mode used:
🟣 Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO)
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Loading...➡️MUSE (Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer)
MUSE is an Integral Field Spectrograph located at the Nasmyth B focus of Yepun, the VLT UT4 telescope. It has a modular structure composed of 24 identical integral-field units (IFU) that together sample, in Wide Field Mode (WFM), a near-contiguous 1 squared arcmin field of view. Spectrally the instrument samples almost the full optical domain with a mean resolution of 3000. Spatially, the instrument samples the sky with 0.2 arcseconds spatial pixels in the Wide Field Mode with natural seeing (WFM-noAO).
(Text sourced from: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/muse/overview.html)
AO modes used:
🟤 Ground Layer Adaptive Optics (GLAO)
🟢 Laser Tomography Adaptive Optics (LTAO)
Parameter file (.ini format) - GLAO
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Coming soon...
Parameter file (.ini format) - LTAO
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Coming soon...
➡️SOUL (Single conjugated adaptive Optics Upgrade for LBT)
AO mode used:
🔵 Single Conjugate Adaptive Optics (SCAO)
Parameter file (.ini format) - SCAO NGS ✴️
View parameter file contents (.ini)
Loading...➡️SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch)
SPHERE is an extreme adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility feeding three science instruments: IRDIS, IFS, and ZIMPOL. The primary science goal of SPHERE is imaging, low-resolution spectroscopic, and polarimetric characterization of extra-solar planetary systems. The instrument design is optimized to provide the highest image quality and contrast performance in a narrow field of view around bright targets that are observed in the visible or near infrared. SPHERE is installed at the UT3 Nasmyth focus of the VLT.
(Text sourced from: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/sphere/overview.html), More information can be found at: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/instruments/sphere.html
AO mode used:
🔵 Single Conjugate Adaptive Optics (SCAO)
Parameter file (.ini format) - SCAO NGS ✴️
View parameter file contents (.ini)
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