Commissioning and performances of the VLT-VIMOS

Oliver LeFevre; Michel Saisse; Dario Mancini; Sylvie Brau-Nogue; Oreste Caputi; Louis Castinel; Sandro D'Odorico; Bianca Garilli; Markus Kissler-Patig; Christian Lucuix; Guido Mancini; Alain Pauget; Giovanni Sciarretta; Marco Scodeggio; Laurence Tresse; Gianpaolo Vettolani

doi:10.1117/12.460959

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7 March 2003 Commissioning and performances of the VLT-VIMOS

Oliver LeFevre, Michel Saisse, Dario Mancini, Sylvie Brau-Nogue, Oreste Caputi, Louis Castinel, Sandro D'Odorico, Bianca Garilli, Markus Kissler-Patig, Christian Lucuix, Guido Mancini, Alain Pauget, Giovanni Sciarretta, Marco Scodeggio, Laurence Tresse, Gianpaolo Vettolani

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Proceedings Volume 4841, Instrument Design and Performance for Optical/Infrared Ground-based Telescopes; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460959
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

The Visible Multi-Object Spectrograph VIMOS is a wide field survey instrument in the process of being commissioned for operations at the ESO-VLT. During the first commissioning period, the instrument has confirmed its excellent performances in its three basic modes of operation: direct imaging, multi-slit spectroscopy, and integral field spectroscopy. VIMOS provides the largest imaging field at the VLT with 224 arcmin². It offers an unprecedented multiplex gain in multi-slit spectroscopy, with on order 800 slits which can be observed simultaneously. The integral field unit has a field up to 54x54 arcsec², with 6400 spectra recorded at once. The overall efficiency of VIMOS combined to the Melipal unit #3 is confirmed to be as computed on the basis of the measured transmission of optical elements. Image quality is confirmed to be excellent, providing images limited by natural seeing in most conditions. High quality slit masks cut by the laser machine coupled to excellent geometric mask to CCD mapping lead to multi-slit spectra of excellent quality. VIMOS is expected to be offered to the ESO community for reguglar observations in early 2003.

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Oliver LeFevre, Michel Saisse, Dario Mancini, Sylvie Brau-Nogue, Oreste Caputi, Louis Castinel, Sandro D'Odorico, Bianca Garilli, Markus Kissler-Patig, Christian Lucuix, Guido Mancini, Alain Pauget, Giovanni Sciarretta, Marco Scodeggio, Laurence Tresse, and Gianpaolo Vettolani "Commissioning and performances of the VLT-VIMOS", Proc. SPIE 4841, Instrument Design and Performance for Optical/Infrared Ground-based Telescopes, (7 March 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460959

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