Publications of the MPIfR Optical & Infrared Interferometry Group


D. Mourard, P.Antonelli, A. Blazit, D. Bonneau, Y. Bresson, J.M.Clausse, A. Domiciano, M. Dugué, R. Foy, P. Harmanec, M. Heininger, K.H. Hofmann, S. Jankov,
P. Koubsky, S. Lagarde, J.B.Lebouquin, P. Mathias, A. Meilland, N. Nardetto, R. Petrov, K. Rousselet-Perraut, D. Schertl, Ph. Stee, I. Tallon-Bosc, M. Tallon, E. Thiébaut, F. Vakili, G. Weigelt

VEGA: a visible spectrograph and polarimeter for the VLTI (invited paper)

"ESO Astrophysics Symposia"
Proceedings of the ESO Workshop: "The power of optical/IR interferometry: recent scientific results and 2nd generation VLTI instrumentation"
April 4-8, 2005 in Garching, Germany
pg.395-406 (2008)


Abstract
The ESO/VLTI has now clearly a position of world leader in the do- main of ground based optical interferometry. With 4 telescopes of 8m20 and 2 (4) telescopes of 1m80, the Paranal Observatory is without any doubt the best optical interferometric facility in the world. Since many years, it has concentrated the ma- jor part of the European interferometric community and with the opening of MIDI and AMBER, the astronomers have now access to 'general user' interferometric instruments in the thermal and near infrared. This paper describes a project for a second generation focal instrument of the VLTI, named VEGA for Visible spEc- troGraph and polArimeter. The goal is to give access to the visible wavelengths, with spectroscopic and polarimetric capabilities and taking advantage of the coher- ent field of view of the VLTI. It is a new unique scientific niche for the VLTI, in the international competition. For example, a 200m interferometer operating in the visible will be able to resolve structures of the order of 0.1 AU at the distance of the Ophucius cloud.

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