Daily Image

26-02-2010
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METIS and MICADO at the at the European – Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

Submitter: Gabby Kroes
Description: The images show both METIS and MICADO at the Nasmyth platform of the E-ELT. METIS is located at the straight through port (on the left) while MICADO is located underneath MAORY (on the right). The gravity invariant location and orientation of the instruments eliminates internal differential flexures. At the end of 2009 these two instruments successfully passed Phase-A design reviews at ESO.

The E-ELT with its 42m aperture will undoubtedly open up new perspectives for optical/infrared astronomy. It will not only enable observations of fainter and fainter targets – scaling sensitivity from the VLT to the E-ELT – but also new kinds of observations that have never been possible before. These new perspectives include the infrared range longward of 1 µm. The mid-infrared wavelength range is extremely rich in spectral diagnostics, which are complementary to diagnostics found at other wavelengths. It contains emission and absorption lines of virtually all molecules, numerous atoms and ions, and unique solid state features.

MICADO is the ‘Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations’, covering a wavelength range of ~0.8 – 2.2 µm. The instrument is supported by and positioned under MAORY, the Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics module. The MICADO consortium consists of three partner institutions from Germany (Lead), Italy and the Netherlands.

METIS is the ‘Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph’, covering the thermal/mid-infrared wavelength range from ~3 – 14 µm. The instrument is located directly onto the platform and will work in close collaboration with the ATLAS AO system. However special internal AO capabilities make early science possible before ATLAS can be available. The METIS consortium consists of five partner institutions from the Netherlands (Lead), Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Belgium.

Also see Daily Images:
- METIS at the European – Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), posted 20-11-2009
- MICADO the movie, posted 18-12-2009.
Copyright: ESO/MPE/NOVA-ASTRON
 
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