Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy: overview

James P. Emerson; Will Sutherland

doi:10.1117/12.456741

24 December 2002 Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy: Overview

James P. Emerson, Will Sutherland

Proceedings Volume 4836, Survey and Other Telescope Technologies and Discoveries; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.456741
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

We give an overview of the current status of the VISTA (Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) project to build a 4-m wide field survey telescope to be operated by ESO (the European Southern Observatory) at the Cerro Paranal Observatory in Chile. First light in 2006 will be with the Infrared (J, H, Ks) Camera with a 1.65 degrees diameter field of view able to accommodate sixteen 2k × 2k IR detectors with 0.34''pixel size. Some motivations driving the choice of site, current design, and operational mode are discussed. We outline some innovative features of the system, which were necessary to deal with, or arose from, the very large field of view, including a cold baffle (rather than cold stop) in the IR camera, lack of traditional telescope focus, f/1 primary mirror, thermal control of the IR camera etc. These are cross-referenced to more detailed analyses by members of the VISTA Project Office team presented at this meeting. Estimated IR performance for VISTA is given. The scientific gains from adding the 2.1 degrees field of view Visible Camera when funds become available are stressed. The problems of processing 0.4TB of survey data acquired each night are discussed.

Citation Download Citation

James P. Emerson and Will Sutherland "Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy: Overview", Proc. SPIE 4836, Survey and Other Telescope Technologies and Discoveries, (24 December 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.456741

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

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available