First Instruments for the ESO VLT Interferometer

A few months from now, light from celestial objects will be directed for the first time towards ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at the Paranal Observatory (Chile).

During this ‘First Light’ event and the subsequent test phase, the light will be recorded with a special test instrument, VINCI (VLT INterferometer Commissioning Instrument). The main components of this high-tech instrument are aptly named MONA (a system that combines the light beams from several telescopes by means of optical fibers) and LISA (the infrared camera).

VINCI was designed and constructed within a fruitful collaboration between ESO and several research institutes and industrial companies in France and Germany. It is now being assembled at the ESO Headquarters in Garching (Germany) and will soon be ready for installation at the telescope on Paranal.

With the VLTI and VINCI, Europe’s astronomers are now entering the first, crucial phase of an exciting scientific and technology venture that will ultimately put the world’s most powerful optical/IR interferometric facility in their hands.

The full text of this Press Release with ESO PR Photo 31/00 of VINCI during tests at the ESO Headquarters in Garching is available at URL:

http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2000/pr-22-00.html