The VLT Interferometer

  • T. R. Bedding
  • J. M. Beckers
  • M. Faucherre
  • N. Hubin
  • B. Koehler
  • O. Von Der Lühe
  • F. Merkle
  • N. Zhu
Conference paper
Part of the International Astronomical Union / Union Astronomique Internationale book series (IAUS, volume 158)

Abstract

One of the observing modes available with the ESO Very Large Telescope will be coherent combination of the light received by up to four 8m unit telescopes and several 1.8m auxiliary telescopes. The location of the main telescopes is fixed, while auxiliary telescopes can be moved among some 30 observing stations. The locations of these stations were chosen to augment the (µ, υ) coverage of the unit telescopes as well as to function as an independent interferometric array.

The 8 m telescopes will be equipped with adaptive optics to correct for seeing-induced wave-front aberrations. This wavefront correction will be complete at near-infrared wavelengths, giving the interferometer very high sensitivity in this spectral regime. This paper gives a brief description of the VLT Interferometer and an update on its status.

Key words

Instrumentation:interferometers Telescopes 

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References

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1994

Authors and Affiliations

  • T. R. Bedding
    • 1
  • J. M. Beckers
    • 1
  • M. Faucherre
    • 1
  • N. Hubin
    • 1
  • B. Koehler
    • 1
  • O. Von Der Lühe
    • 1
  • F. Merkle
    • 1
  • N. Zhu
    • 1
  1. 1.European Southern ObservatoryGarching bei MünchenGermany

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