20 years of AO at ESO MACAO-CRIRES, or how to recycle a good idea

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 2 AO Department Multi-application curvature AO   MACAO was developed initially for VLTI needs   Two sisters of MACAO-VLTI benefited from it, SINFONI and CRIRES   CRIRES could have been the first Coudé instrument, instead of the actual Nasmyth AO (f/15 focus)

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 3 AO Department CRIRES for dummies

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 4 AO Department MACAO and CRIRES in a nutshell:   Near IR-spectrograph 1 =>5  m   High resolution (10 5 )   4x1k Aladdin detectors   0.2" slit width, 0.1" pixel   Slit viewer, 0.05” pixel   AO-assisted (MACAO-family) Curvature AO (robust, low maintenance, APDs) 60 element bimorph DM / lenslets 420 Hz loop frequency, 60 Hz bandwidth Strehl >50% for R<13   Off-axis guiding in a ~50" field of view   Sub-arcsec resolution along the slit   IR Slit-viewing guiding facility (1k detector)

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 5 AO Department High spectral resolution   for one molecular species typically several hundred rotation transitions can be seen, sampling: - different zones spatially - different physical conditions, e.g. T   Better isotopic separation   A higher resolution allows filtering out many emission lines of the atmosphere   High absolute accuracy (RV e.g. for embedded stars)   See Käufl et al., SPIE, 2004

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 6 AO Department Higher spatial resolution  MACAO provides an excellent image quality for the Paranal site  Diffraction-limit imaging is routinely achieved, with a high loop robustness  Ensquared energy (0.2”) higher than 50% in K-band for M R brighter than 14 (Paufique et al, SPIE, 2008)  Spatial resolution goes from 0.4” in good seeing conditions down to 3.5 µm)  (lesser) Correction on extended objects: comets nuclei, satellites, Mars features !!  AO criterion: enslitted energy, expected up to 70% for bright stars  Solar system objects tracking  Elevation mode off-axis tracking  AO criterion: enslitted energy, expected up to 70% for bright stars Io in K-band (raw), MACAO- CRIRES commissioning 2006

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 7 AO Department All together   Both high spatial and spectral resolution allows retrieving exquisitely fine information on astrophysical objects   Model-dependent: discrimination down to 0.8 mas has been reached, using spectro-astrometry (Pontoppidan et al., ApJ 2008)   No competition existing in the 8-10 m class telescopes

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 8 AO Department Where did CRIRES come from?   MACAO for VLTI and MACAO for SINFONI were the baseline for the MACAO projects   Individual components were re-used for CRIRES => design and tests greatly simplified

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 9 AO Department Concepts, finite product

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 10 AO Department AO developments and recycling

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 11 AO Department MACAO-CRIRES milestones   CRIRES FDR 2001   End of MACAO lab tests 02/2006   Reintegration in Paranal 03/2006   First light: 6 th 04/2006   CRIRES commissioning: 2007

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 12 AO Department

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 13 AO Department

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 14 AO Department MACAO-CRIRES first light Technical results (K-band) N Unidentified volcano ?

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 15 AO Department MACAO-CRIRES first light Conclusions   Successful first light: 6 th 04/2006   performances in-line with specifications (>40% EqE R<15),   Cold part reintegration is proceeding   NIR High-resolution –spatial and spectral- available end 2006/beginning 2007 Many thanks to the CRIRES team and to the Paranal staff for all the good job done and the results.

European Southern Observatory European Southern Observatory © ESO 2009 Page 16 AO Department A jigsaw of SINFONI and VLTI