Point Spread Function Analysis of the NACO Instrument at the VLT

Abstract

In this work an analytical description of the NACO PSF with a minimum number of parameters is sought. These parameters are governed by the observational characteristics and the location of the PSF with respect to the guide star. The first order approximation of the PSF can then be used for image deconvolution. The analysis and modelling of the PSF was performed using images of a given position in the Galactic bulge collected in the Ks-band (2.00–2.36μm) with the S27 camera on 19/08 (seeing 1.1 arcsec) and 23/08/2002 (seeing 0.9 arcsec) during the science verification period of NACO.