ESO ETCs & Simulations

Exposure Time Calculators (ETCs) play an important role in the overall process of ESO science operations. They are intended to give astronomers the ability to predict the signal to noise achieved under a set of assumptions about the performance of an instrument and the observing conditions. The accuracy of these predictions will improve as the instrument is calibrated and tracked under actual operational conditions. For the moment, ETC accuracy is dependent on preliminary calibrations and estimates of operational conditions. Users are advised to exert caution in the interpretation of the results and to report any result which may appear inconsistent.

Documentation

General descriptions for optical, infrared, UVES and VIMOS instruments.
Performance statement, Frequently Asked Questions.
Formula Book for signal and noise estimates.
Characteristic curves for the various optical components.

Exposure Time Calculators & Simulations

	Observation Domain
Facility	Optical		Infrared
Facility	Imaging	Spectroscopy	Imaging	Spectroscopy
La Silla	EMMI EFOSC2 SUSI 2p2 WFI	EMMI EFOSC2 HARPS FEROS	SOFI	SOFI
Paranal UT1	FORS2(pre P83, now retired) FORS2(since P83, current)	FORS2(pre P83, now retired) FORS2(since P83, current)		KMOS CRIRES
Paranal UT2	FORS1(retired)	UVES FLAMES+UVES GIRAFFE FORS1(retired) X-SHOOTER
Paranal UT3	VIMOS	VIMOS MOS IFU	ISAAC SW ISAAC LW	ISAAC SW ISAAC LW
Paranal UT4			NACO HAWK-I	NACO SINFONI
Paranal VISTA			VIRCAM
Paranal VST	OmegaCAM
VLTI Calculators	VisCalc CalVin
E-ELT	Imaging Spectroscopy

Notes

The KMOS ETC was released for CfP P92 on February 27 2013

Release Plan
Optical Imaging	Released 3.2.10 on 16/12/2011
Optical Spectroscopy	Released 3.2.8 on 18/09/2010 (VIMOS) Released 3.2.7a on 04/03/2009 (GIRAFFE) Released 3.2.7 on 28/08/2008
Infrared Imaging (SW, LW)	Released 3.3.1 on 31/08/2010 (VIRCAM) Released 3.2.9 on 30/08/2009 (HAWK-I) Released 3.2.1 on 30/08/2007
Infrared Spectroscopy (SW, LW)	Released 3.2.1 on 30/08/2007
Echelle Spectroscopy	Released 3.2.13 on 16/12/2011
Infrared Adaptive Optics	Released 3.2.20 on 27/02/2013 (KMOS) Released 3.2.19 on 12/10/2012 (CRIRES) Released 3.2.13a on 01/08/2012 (SINFONI) Released 3.2.6 on 20/06/2008 (NACO) Released 3.1.0 on 25/07/2006 (VISIR spectroscopy)
VLTI Calculators	Released 4.1.2 on 01/09/2009 (VisCalc) Released 3.1.2 on 19/12/2011 (CalVin)
E-ELT	Released 2.11 on 12/09/2008