In the GRAVITY+ project, GRAVITY is presently undergoing a series of upgrades to enhance its performance, add wide field capability and thereby expand its sky coverage. Some aspects of these improvements have already been implemented and commissioned by the end of 2021, making them accessible to the community. The augmentation of sky coverage involves increasing the maximum angular separation between the celestial science object and the fringe tracking object from the previous 2 arcseconds (limited by the field of view of the VLTI) to 20 – 30 arcseconds (constrained by atmospheric conditions during observation). Phase 1 of GRAVITY+ Wide utilizes the earlier PRIMA Differential Delay Lines to compensate for the optical path length variation between the science and fringe tracking beams throughout an observation. In phase 2, we are upgrading the existing beam compressors (BC) to integrate optical path length difference compensation directly into the BC. This modification eliminates five optical reflections per beam, thereby enhancing the optical throughput of the VLTI–GRAVITY system and the bandwidth of the vibrational control. We will present the implementation of phase 2 and share preliminary results from our testing activities for GRAVITY+ Wide.
With the upgrade from GRAVITY to GRAVITY+ the instrument will evolve to an all-sky interferometer that can observe faint targets, such as high redshift AGN. Observing the faintest targets requires reducing the noise sources in GRAVITY as much as possible. The dominant noise source, especially in the blue part of the spectrum, is the backscattering of the metrology laser light onto the detector. To reduce this noise we introduce two new metrology modes. With a combination of small hardware changes and software adaptations, we can dim the metrology laser during the observation without losing the phase referencing. For single beam targets, we can even turn off the metrology laser for the maximum SNR on the detector. These changes lead to a SNR improvement of over a factor of two averaged over the whole spectrum and up to a factor of eight in the part of the spectrum currently dominated by laser noise.
As part of the GRAVITY+ project, the near-infrared beam combiner GRAVITY and the VLTI are currently undergoing a series of significant upgrades to further improve the performance and sky coverage. The instrumental changes will be transformational, and for instance uniquely position GRAVITY to observe the broad line region of hundreds of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) at a redshift of two and higher. The increased sky coverage is achieved by enlarging the maximum angular separation between the celestial science object (SC) and the off-axis fringe tracking (FT) star from currently 2 arcseconds (arcsec) up to unprecedented 30 arcsec, limited by the atmospheric conditions. This was successfully demonstrated at the VLTI for the first time.
Combining adaptive optics and interferometric observations results in a considerable contrast gain compared to single-telescope, extreme AO systems. Taking advantage of this, the ExoGRAVITY project is a survey of known young giant exoplanets located in the range of 0.1” to 2” from their stars. The observations provide astrometric data of unprecedented accuracy, being crucial for refining the orbital parameters of planets and illuminating their dynamical histories. Furthermore, GRAVITY will measure non-Keplerian perturbations due to planet-planet interactions in multi-planet systems and measure dynamical masses. Over time, repetitive observations of the exoplanets at medium resolution (R = 500) will provide a catalogue of K-band spectra of unprecedented quality, for a number of exoplanets. The K-band has the unique properties that it contains many molecular signatures (CO, H2O, CH4, CO2). This allows constraining precisely surface gravity, metallicity, and temperature, if used in conjunction with self-consistent models like Exo-REM. Further, we will use the parameter-retrieval algorithm petitRADTRANS to constrain the C/O ratio of the planets. Ultimately, we plan to produce the first C/O survey of exoplanets, kick-starting the difficult process of linking planetary formation with measured atomic abundances.
We present the successful demonstration of world's first large-separation ~30" off-axis fringe tracking with four telescopes in October 2019. With this technique we increase the sky-coverage for optical interferometry by orders of magnitude compared to current technology. Following the early work at the Palomar Testbed Interferometer, the first demonstration of off-axis fringe tracking at the Keck Interferometer and with PRIMA at the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer, and the breakthrough with the GRAVITY Galactic Center observations, we enhanced the VLTI infrastructure for GRAVITY to take advantage of the PRIMA Star separators and Differential Delay Lines for off-axis fringe tracking. In our presentation we give an introduction to the subject, present the enhancements of the VLTI, and present our results from the first on-sky operation in October 2019, with observations of the Orion Trapezium Cluster, a field brown dwarf, and a high redshift quasar.
This paper presents an analysis of the predicted performance of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDS) in interferometric instruments. MKIDS are energy sensitive photon counting detectors which can be designed to operate over a wide range of photon energies, and have excellent timing capabilities. Several Optical and near-IR (OIR) MKID instruments have already been used on-sky, and there are ongoing developments in the US and Europe to improve their capabilities for a wide range of science cases. For interferometric instruments the benefits are clear, with no read out noise or dark current, and time resolution of a microsecond, they can be used for both fringe tracking and science detectors. The inherent energy resolution allows for a range of potential improvements to instruments, from rejection of stray light and cosmic rays, to improved wavelength coverage, to simplified optical designs with few, or no, moving elements.
The LINC-NIRVANA Fringe and Flexure Tracking System has nearly completed assembly in the lab in Cologne, and will soon be ready for shipment and integration into the full LINC-NIRVANA system at MPIA Heidelberg. This paper provides an overview of the final assembly and testing phase in Cologne, concentrating on those aspects that directly affect instrument performance, including the detector performance and stability of the detector positioning system.
GRAVITY1 is a 2nd generation Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) operated in the astronomical K-band. In the Beam Combiner Instrument2 (BCI) four Fiber Couplers3 (FC) will feed the light coming from each telescope into two fibers, a reference channel for the fringe tracking spectrometer4 (FT) and a science channel for the science spectrometer4 (SC). The differential Optical Path Difference (dOPD) between the two channels will be corrected using a novel metrology concept.5 The metrology laser will keep control of the dOPD of the two channels. It is injected into the spectrometers and detected at the telescope level. Piezo-actuated fiber stretchers correct the dOPD accordingly. Fiber-fed Integrated Optics6 (IO) combine coherently the light of all six baselines and feed both spectrometers. Assisted by Infrared Wavefront Sensors7 (IWS) at each Unit Telescope (UT) and correcting the path difference between the channels with an accuracy of up to 5 nm, GRAVITY will push the limits of astrometrical accuracy to the order of 10 μas and provide phase-referenced interferometric imaging with a resolution of 4 mas. The University of Cologne developed, constructed and tested both spectrometers of the camera system. Both units are designed for the near infrared (1.95 - 2.45 μm) and are operated in a cryogenic environment. The Fringe Tracker is optimized for highest transmission with fixed spectral resolution (R = 22) realized by a double-prism.8 The Science spectrometer is more diverse and allows to choose from three different spectral resolutions8 (R = [22, 500, 4000]), where the lowest resolution is achieved with a prism and the higher resolutions are realized with grisms. A Wollaston prism in each spectrometer allows for polarimetric splitting of the light. The goal for the spectrometers is to concentrate at least 90% of the ux in 2 × 2 pixel (36 × 36 μm2) for the Science channel and in 1 pixel (24 × 24 μm) in the Fringe Tracking channel. In Section 1, we present the arrangement, direction of spectral dispersion and shift of polarization channels for both spectrometers, and the curvature of the spectra in the science spectrometer. In Section 2 we determine the best focus position of the detectors. The overall contrast of images at different positions of the detector stage is computed with the standard deviation of pixel values in the spectra containing region. In Section 3 we analyze high dynamic range images for each spectrometer and resolution obtained at the afore determined best focus positions. We deduce the ensquared energy from the FWHM of Gaussian fits perpendicular to the spectra.
LINC-NIRVANA (LN) is the near-infrared, Fizeau-type imaging interferometer for the large binocular telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham, Arizona (elevation of 3267 m). The instrument is currently being built by a consortium of German and Italian institutes under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. It will combine the radiation from both 8.4 m primary mirrors of LBT in such a way that the sensitivity of a 11.9 m telescope and the spatial resolution of a 22.8 m telescope will be obtained within a 10.5×10.5 arcsec 2 scientific field of view. Interferometric fringes of the combined beams are tracked in an oval field with diameters of 1 and 1.5 arcmin. In addition, both incoming beams are individually corrected by LN’s multiconjugate adaptive optics system to reduce atmospheric image distortion over a circular field of up to 6 arcmin in diameter. A comprehensive technical overview of the instrument is presented, comprising the detailed design of LN’s four major systems for interferometric imaging and fringe tracking, both in the near infrared range of 1 to 2.4 μm, as well as atmospheric turbulence correction at two altitudes, both in the visible range of 0.6 to 0.9 μm. The resulting performance capabilities and a short outlook of some of the major science goals will be presented. In addition, the roadmap for the related assembly, integration, and verification process are discussed. To avoid late interface-related risks, strategies for early hardware as well as software interactions with the telescope have been elaborated. The goal is to ship LN to the LBT in 2014.
LINC-NIRVANA (LN) is the near-infrared, Fizeau-type imaging interferometer for the Large Binocular Telescope
(LBT) on Mt. Graham, Arizona, USA (3267m of elevation). The instrument is currently being built by a consortium of
German and Italian institutes under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg,
Germany. It will combine the radiation from both 8.4m primary mirrors of LBT in such a way that the sensitivity of a
11.9m telescope and the spatial resolution of a 22.8m telescope will be obtained within a 10.5arcsec x 10.5arcsec
scientific field of view. Interferometric fringes of the combined beams are tracked in an oval field with diameters of 1
and 1.5arcmin. In addition, both incoming beams are individually corrected by LN’s multi-conjugate adaptive optics
(MCAO) system to reduce atmospheric image distortion over a circular field of up to 6arcmin in diameter.
This paper gives a comprehensive technical overview of the instrument comprising the detailed design of LN’s four
major systems for interferometric imaging and fringe tracking, both in the NIR range of 1 - 2.4μm, as well as
atmospheric turbulence correction at two altitudes, both in the visible range of 0.6 - 0.9μm. The resulting performance
capabilities and a short outlook of some of the major science goals will be presented. In addition, the roadmap for the
related assembly, integration and verification (AIV) process will be discussed. To avoid late interface-related risks,
strategies for early hardware as well as software interactions with the telescope have been elaborated. The goal is to ship
LN to the LBT in 2014.
The super-massive 4 million solar mass black hole (SMBH) SgrA* shows variable emission from the millimeter to the X-ray domain. A detailed analysis of the infrared light curves allows us to address the accretion phenomenon in a statistical way. The analysis shows that the near-infrared flux density excursions are dominated by a single state power law, with the low states of SgrA* are limited by confusion through the unresolved stellar background. We show that for 8-10m class telescopes blending effects along the line of sight will result in artificial compact star-like objects of 0.5-1 mJy that last for about 3-4 years. We discuss how the imaging capabilities of GRAVITY at the VLTI, LINC-NIRVANA at the LBT and METIS at the E-ELT will contribute to the investigation of the low variability states of SgrA*.
The Fringe and Flexure Tracking System (FFTS) is meant to monitor and correct atmospheric piston varia tion and instrumental vibrations and flexure during near-infrared interferometric image acquisition of LING NIRVANA. In close work with the adaptive optics system the FFTS enables homothetic imaging for the Large Binocular Telescope. One of the main problems we had to face is the connection between the cryogenic upper part of the instrument, e.g. detector head, and the lower ambient temperature part. In this ambient temperature part the moving stages are situated that move the detector head in the given field of view (FOV). We show how we solved this problem using the versatile material glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP's) and report in what way this material can be worked. We discuss in detail the exquisite characteristics of this material which we use to combine the cryogenic and ambient environments to a fully working system. The main characteristics that we focus on are the low temperature conduction and the tensile strength of the GFRP's. The low temperature conduction is needed to allow for a low heat-exchange between the cryogenic and ambient part whereas the tensile strength is needed to support heavy structures like the baffle motor and to allow for a minimum of flexure for the detector head. Additionally, we discuss the way we attached the GFRP to the remaining parts of the FFTS using a two component encapsulant.
LINC-NIRVANA is a near-Infrared homothetic, beam combining camera for the Large Binocular Telescope that offers Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics wavefront correction and fringe tracking to achieve a time-stable fringe pattern. Therefore, the trajectory of the reference source has to be followed as accurate as possible for a precise point spread function acquisition. The presented measurement campaign shows detector positioning errors exceeding the requirements significantly and indicates that these huge errors arise from the software, while the installed hardware matches the requirements.
We present the latest status of the control system of the LN (LINC-NIRVANA) FFTS (Fringe and Flexure Tracker
System) for the LBT. The software concept integrates the sensor data and control of the various subsystems
and provides the interaction with the whole LN instrument. Varying conditions and multiple configurations for
observations imply a flexible interconnection of the control loops for the hardware manipulators with respect
to the time-critical data analysis of the fringe detection. In this contribution details of the implementation of
the algorithms on a real-time Linux PC are given. By considering the results from simulations of the system
dynamics, lab experiments, atmospheric simulations, and telescope characterization the optimal parameter setup
for an observation can be chosen and basic techniques for adaption to changing conditions can be derived.
LINC-NIRVANA (LN) is a German /Italian interferometric beam combiner camera for the Large Binocular Telescope. Due to homothetic imaging, LN will make use of an exceptionally large field-of-view. As part of LN, the Fringe-and-Flexure-Tracker system (FFTS) will provide real-time, closed-loop measurement and correction of pistonic and flexure signals induced by the atmosphere and inside the telescope-instrument system. Such
compensation is essential for achieving coherent light combination over substantial time intervals (~10min.).
The FFTS is composed of a dedicated near-infrared detector, which can be positioned by three linear stages within the curved focal plane of LN. The system is divided into a cryogenic (detector) and ambient (linear stages) temperature environment, which are isolated from each other by a moving baffie. We give an overview of the current design and implementation stage of the FFTS opto-mechanical components. The optical components represent an update of the original design to assess slow image motion induced by the LN instrument separately.
The X-shooter data reduction pipeline, as part of the ESO-VLT Data Flow System, provides recipes for Paranal
Science Operations, and for Data Product and Quality Control Operations at Garching headquarters. At Paranal,
it is used for the quick-look data evaluation. The pipeline recipes can be executed either with EsoRex at the
command line level or through the Gasgano graphical user interface. The recipes are implemented with the ESO
Common Pipeline Library (CPL).
X-shooter is the first of the second generation of VLT instruments. It makes possible to collect in one shot
the full spectrum of the target from 300 to 2500 nm, subdivided in three arms optimised for UVB, VIS and NIR
ranges, with an efficiency between 15% and 35% including the telescope and the atmosphere, and a spectral
resolution varying between 3000 and 17,000. It allows observations in stare, offset modes, using the slit or an
IFU, and observing sequences nodding the target along the slit.
Data reduction can be performed either with a classical approach, by determining the spectral format via
2D-polynomial transformations, or with the help of a dedicated instrument physical model to gain insight on the
instrument and allowing a constrained solution that depends on a few parameters with a physical meaning.
In the present paper we describe the steps of data reduction necessary to fully reduce science observations in
the different modes with examples on typical data calibrations and observations sequences.
LINC-NIRVANA is the near-infrared Fizeau interferometric imaging camera for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT).
For an efficient interferometric operation of LINC-NIRVANA the Fringe and Flexure Tracking System (FFTS) is
mandatory: It is a real-time servo system that allows to compensate atmospheric and instrumental optical pathlength
differences (OPD). The thereby produced time-stable interference pattern at the position of the science detector enables
long integration times at interferometric angular resolutions.
As the development of the FFTS includes tests of control software and robustness of the fringe tracking concept in a
realistic physical system a testbed interferometer is set up as laboratory experiment.
This setup allows us to generate point-spread functions (PSF) similar to the interferometric PSF of the LBT via a
monochromatic (He-Ne laser) or a polychromatic light source (halogen lamp) and to introduce well defined, fast varying
phase offsets to simulate different atmospheric conditions and sources of instrumental OPD variations via dedicated
actuators.
Furthermore it comprises a piston mirror as actuator to counteract the measured OPD and a CCD camera in the focal
plane as sensor for fringe acquisition which both are substantial devices for a fringe tracking servo loop. The goal of the
setup is to test the performance and stability of different control loop algorithms and to design and optimize the control
approaches.
We present the design and the realization of the testbed interferometer and comment on the fringe-contrast behavior.
LINC-NIRVANA (LN) is a German/Italian interferometric beam combiner camera for the Large Binocular
Telescope. Due to homothetic imaging, LN will make use of an exceptionally large field-of-view. As part of LN,
the Fringe-and-Flexure-Tracker system (FFTS) will provide real-time, closed-loop measurement and correction
of pistonic and flexure signals induced by the atmosphere and inside the telescope-instrument system. Such
compensation is essential for achieving coherent light combination over substantial time intervals (~ 10min.).
The FFTS is composed of a dedicated near-infrared detector, which can be positioned by three linear stages
within the curved focal plane of LN. The system is divided into a cryogenic (detector) and ambient (linear
stages) temperature environment, which are isolated from each other by a moving baffle. We give an overview
of the current design and implementation stage of the FFTS opto-mechanical and electronic components. We
present recent important updates of the system, including the development of separated channels for the tracking
of piston and flexure. Furthermore, the inclusion of dispersive elements will allow for the correction of atmospheric
differential refraction, as well as the induction of artificial dispersion to better exploit the observational-conditions
parameter space (air mass, brightness).
LINC-NIRVANA is the NIR homothetic imaging camera for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). In close
cooperation with the Adaptive Optics systems of LINC-NIRVANA the Fringe and Flexure Tracking System
(FFTS) is a fundamental component to ensure a complete and time-stable wavefront correction at the position
of the science detector in order to allow for long integration times at interferometric angular resolutions. In this
contribution, we present the design and the realization of the ongoing FFTS laboratory tests, taking into account
the system requirements. We have to sample the large Field of View and to follow the reference source during
science observations to an accuracy of less than 2 microns. In particular, important tests such as cooling tests
of cryogenic components and tip - tilt test (the repeatability and the precision under the different inclinations)
are presented. The system parameters such as internal flexure and precision are discussed.
We present the latest status of the fringe detecting algorithms for the LINC-NIRVANA FFTS (Fringe and Flexure
Tracker System). The piston and PSF effects of the system from the top of the atmosphere through the telescopes and
multi-conjugate AO systems to the detector are discussed and the resulting requirements for the FFTS outlined.
The Fringe and Flexure Tracker System (FFTS) of the LINC-NIRVANA instrument is designed to monitor and
correct the atmospheric piston variations and the instrumental vibrations and flexure at the LBT during the
NIR interferometric image acquisition. In this contribution, we give an overview of the current FFTS control
design, the various subsystems, and their interaction details. The control algorithms are implemented on a realtime
computer system with interfaces to the fringe and flexure detector read-out electronics, the OPD vibration
monitoring system (OVMS) based on accelerometric sensors at the telescope structure, the piezo-electric actuator
for piston compensation, and the AO systems for offloading purposes. The FFTS computer combines data from
different sensors with varying sampling rate, noise and delay. This done on the basis of the vibration data and the
expected power spectrum of atmospheric conditions. Flexure effects are then separated from OPD signals and
the optimal correcting variables are computed and distributed to the actuators. The goal is a 120 nm precision
of the correction at a bandwidth of about 50 Hz. An end-to-end simulation including models of atmospheric
effects, actuator dynamics, sensor effects, and on-site vibration measurements is used to optimize controllers and
filters and to pre-estimate the performance under different observation conditions.
We present a project aimed at establishing a set of 12 spectro-photometric standards over a wide wavelength range from
320 to 2500 nm. Currently no such set of standard stars covering the near-IR is available. Our strategy is to extend the
useful range of existing well-established optical flux standards into the near-IR by means of integral field spectroscopy
with SINFONI at the VLT combined with state-of-the-art white dwarf stellar atmospheric models. As a solid reference,
we use two primary HST standard white dwarfs. This ESO "Observatory Programme" has been collecting data since
February 2007. The analysis of the data obtained in the first year of the project shows that a careful selection of the
atmospheric windows used to measure fluxes and the stability of SINFONI make it possible to achieve an accuracy of 3-
6% depending on the wavelength band and stellar magnitude, well within our original goal of 10% accuracy. While this
project was originally tailored to the needs of the wide wavelength range (320-2500 nm) of X-shooter on the VLT, it will
also benefit any other near-IR spectrographs, providing a huge improvement over existing flux calibration methods.
KEYWORDS: Observatories, Data modeling, Signal to noise ratio, Telescopes, Calibration, Data processing, Signal processing, Instrument modeling, Point spread functions, Mathematical modeling
This paper describes a new workflow for defining the observation process from initial application through to data
reduction. It aims to optimize the time on target for each observation, enabling an observatory to perform more science.
It also aims to improve the quality of decision making by ensuring an expert determines each parameter. We also describe a new science product, the instrument function, which is normally left out of most data packages.
We present the current state of the Data Reduction Software (DRS) being developed at APC, Paris Observatory,
Amsterdam University and ESO for the X-shooter echelle spectrograph. X-shooter is the first VLT second
generation instrument, which will have its first light during the fall of the current year and will be available to
the astronomical community starting April 2009. The DRS will be fully integrated in the ESO VLT data flow
environment and it will use the ESO Common Pipeline Library. X-shooter data have two main characteristics,
on the one hand the exceptionally wide band (0.3 - 2.4 micron) covered in a single exposure, and on the other
hand the spectral format with highly curved orders and tilted lines. After a brief description of the reduction
process, the main results obtained up to now on simulated and laboratory data are reported. In particular the
precision of wavelength calibration and sky subtraction are discussed.
X-shooter is a new high-efficiency spectrograph observing the complete spectral range of 300-2500 nm in a single
exposure, with a spectral resolving power R>5000. The instrument will be located at the Cassegrain focus of one of the
VLT UTs and consists of three spectrographs: UV, VIS and Near-IR. This paper addresses the design, hardware
realization and performance of the Near-IR spectrograph of the X-Shooter instrument and its components.
Various optical, mechanical and cryogenic manufacturing and verification techniques are discussed. The cryogenic
performance of replicated light weight gratings is presented. Bare aluminium mirrors are produced and polished to
optical quality to preserve high shape accuracy at cryogenic conditions. Their manufacturing techniques and
performance are both discussed. The cryogenic collimator and dispersion boxes, on which the optical components are
mounted, feature integrated baffles for improved stiffness and integrated leaf springs to reduce tension on optical
components, thereby challenging 5 axis simultaneous CNC milling capabilities. ASTRON Extreme Light Weighting is
used for a key component to reduce the flexure of the cryogenic system; some key numbers and unique manufacturing
experience for this component are presented. The method of integrated system design at cryogenic working temperatures
and the resulting alignment-free integration are evaluated. Finally some key lab test results for the complete NIR
spectrograph are presented.
We present the Data Reduction Software (DRS) being developed at APC, Paris Observatory, Amsterdam University
and ESO for the X-shooter echelle spectrograph. X-shooter is the first VLT second generation instrument,
expected to be operational in 2008. The DRS will be fully integrated in the ESO VLT system and it will use the
ESO Common Pipeline Library. We discuss the data reduction related to slit and IFU observations. X-shooter
data have two main characteristics, on the one hand the exceptionally wide band (0.3-2.4 μm) covered in a single
exposure, and on the other hand the spectral format with highly curved orders and tilted lines. The reduction
process is described and the critical issues related to the above characteristics, notably the sky subtraction, the
optimal extraction, and the construction of 1D/2D/3D output products, are addressed. Some aspects of the
spectrophotometric calibration are also discussed.
SPIFFI (SPectrometer for Infrared Faint Field Imaging) is a fully cryogenic, near-infrared imaging spectrograph built at the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and upgraded with a new detector and spectrograph camera by ASTRON/NOVA, ESO and MPE. The upgraded instrument will become a facility instrument for the ESO VLT in summer 2004 as part of the SINFONI (SINgle Faint Object Near-IR Investigation) project, which is the combination of SPIFFI and ESOs adaptive optics module MACAO (Multiple Application Curvature Adaptive Optics), at the Cassegrain focus of Yepun (UT4). In spring 2003 we had the opportunity to observe with SPIFFI as a guest instrument without the AO-module at the Cassegrain focus of UT2 of the VLT. In this paper we discuss the performance of SPIFFI during the guest-instrument phase. First we summarize the technical performance of SPIFFI like the spatial and spectral resolution, the detector performance and the instruments throughput. Afterwards we illustrate the power of integral field spectroscopy by presenting data and results of the Galactic Center.
We report on the performance of FLAMINGOS, the world's first fully cryogenic near-IR multi-object spectrometer. FLAMINGOS has a fast all refractive optical system, which can be used at telescopes slower than f/7.5. This makes FLAMINGOS a very efficient wide-field imager when used on fast small aperture telescopes and a high AW spectrometer using laser machined aperture masks for MOS spectroscopy. FLAMINGOS uses a 2048x2048 HgCdTe HAWAII-2 array by the Rockwell Science Center. The array is readout through 32 amplifiers, which results in low overheads for observations. We describe both the operating characteristics of the HAWAII-2 array and of the array controller and data acquisition system. FLAMINGOS has been in operation for about 1.5 years and is now in routine use on four telescopes: The Kitt Peak 4-m and 2.1-m, The 6.5-m MMT and the 8-m Gemini South Telescope. We will describe the operating characteristics of FLAMINGOS on each of these telescopes that deliver fields-of-view from 21x21 arcminutes to 2.7x2.7 arcminutes and pixels from 0.6 arcseconds to 0.08 arcseconds. While providing a large AW product for fast telescopes (i.e. f/8), FLAMINGOS becomes progressively less efficient on slower telescopes. Since nearly all large telescopes have fairly slow optical systems (f/12 or slower) the combination of large aperture and slow optical systems makes FLAMINGOS ill suited for optimal performance on current large aperture telescopes. Thus, we are beginning construction of FLAMINGOS-2, which will be optimized for performance on the f/16 Gemini South 8-m telescope. Similar to FLAMINGOS, FLAMINGOS-2 will be fully refractive using grisms, laser machined aperture masks and a 2048x2048 HgCdTe HAWAII-2 array. FLAMINGOS-2 will provide a 6.1 arcminute field-of-view with 0.18 arcsecond pixels. FLAMINGOS-2 will also be designed to except an f/32 beam from the Gemini South MCAO system.
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