Paranal Instrumentation - Period 91
The following table identifies the offered Paranal telescopes and instruments and their location for P87. The links to the different instruments provide an overview of the respective instrument capabilites and the offered instrument modes
(valid for Period 90, October1st, 2012 - March 31st, 2013).
| Telescope | Focus | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasmyth A | Cassegrain | Nasmyth B | Interferometric | |
| UT1 (Antu) | CRIRES | FORS2 | N/A | |
| UT2 (Kueyen) | FLAMES | XSHOOTER | UVES | |
| UT3 (Melipal) | N/A | VISIR | VIMOS | |
| UT4 (Yepun) | HAWK-I | SINFONI | NACO | |
| AT1 | ||||
| AT2 | ||||
| AT3 | ||||
| AT4 | ||||
| VISTA | VIRCAM | |||
| VST |
OmegaCAM |
|||
For details please refer to the Call for Proposals for Period 91.
Information on Paranal decommissioned instruments is available on a separate page.
Telescope and Instrument Overheads
Service and Visitor Mode observers must include in their proposals the overhead times associated with their science target observations. In service mode, time for night-time calibrations and associated overheads should only be included in cases where the accuracy of the calibration plan is not deemed sufficient for the science goals. The following tables provides typical times to estimate the overheads associated with their observations.More details can be found in the instrument manuals.
(valid for P91).
| Telescope/Instrument | Action | Time (minutes) |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Telescope | Preset | 6 |
| CRIRES | Acquisition without AO | 3 |
| CRIRES | Acquisition with AO | 5 |
| CRIRES | Read-out | 10%-60% of exp. time[1] |
| CRIRES | Nodding cycle | 0.4 |
| CRIRES | Change of wavelength setting | 1.5 - 2.5 [1] |
| CRIRES | Change of derotator position angle | 1 |
| CRIRES | Attached wavelength calibration | 2.5 |
| CRIRES | Attached lamp flat | 2 |
| FORS2 | Acquisition (1 cycle w/o exp. time)[2] | 1.5 or 2 |
| FORS2 | Through Slit Image (2 cycles w/o exp. times)[3] | 4 |
| FORS2 | Instrument Setup | 1 |
| FORS2 | Retarder Plate Setup per PMOS/IPOL OB | 1 |
| FORS2 | Read-out 100kHz binned (spectroscopy) | 0.7 |
| FORS2 | Read-out 200kHz binned (imaging) | 0.5 |
| FLAMES | Acquisition[4] | 9 |
| FLAMES | Instr. Setup GIRAFFE | 1 |
| FLAMES | Instr. Setup UVES | 1 |
| FLAMES | CCD read-out GIRAFFE | 1 |
| FLAMES | CCD read-out UVES | 1 |
| FLAMES | Screen Flatfields | 7 |
| FLAMES | Plate Configuration[5] | 0-20 |
| UVES | Instrument Setup | 1 |
| UVES | Acquisition. Bright Point Source | 2 |
| UVES | Acquisition. Faint, Extended or Crowded Field | 5 |
| UVES | Read-out[6], 1x1, Fast | 0.75 |
| UVES | Read-out[6], 2x2, Slow | 0.75 |
| UVES | Attached ThAr, Night time | 1.5 |
| UVES | Attached Flat, Night time | 2 |
| XSHOOTER | Target acquisition | 3-5 |
| XSHOOTER | Telescope offsetting | 0.25 |
| XSHOOTER | Instrument setup Slit | 0.5 |
| XSHOOTER | Instrument setup IFU | 1 |
| XSHOOTER | UVB Read-out[7], 1x1, Slow/Fast | 70/19 sec |
| XSHOOTER | UVB Read-out[7], 1x2, Slow/Fast | 38/12 sec |
| XSHOOTER | UVB Read-out[7], 2x2, Slow/Fast | 22/8 sec |
| XSHOOTER | VIS Read-out[7], 1x1, Slow/Fast | 92/14 sec |
| XSHOOTER | VIS Read-out[7], 1x1, Slow/Fast | 48/14 sec |
| XSHOOTER | VIS Read-out[7], 1x1, Slow/Fast | 27/9 sec |
| XSHOOTER | NIR Read-out (per DIT) | 0.88 sec |
| VIMOS | IMG acquisition + Instrument setup | 3 |
| VIMOS | MOS acquisition + Instrument setup | 15 |
| VIMOS | IFU acquisition + Instrument setup | 10 |
| VIMOS | Read-out IMG,MOS,IFU (4 quadrants) | 1 |
| VIMOS | Change of Filter (IMG) | 3 |
| VIMOS | Attached screen flat+arc (IFU, MOS)[8] | 5-8 |
| VISIR | Imaging target acquisition (incl. instrument setup): | |
| VISIR | fine acquisition (>1 Jy source) | 5 |
| VISIR | blind preset (<1 Jy source) | 2 |
| VISIR | Imaging read-out/chopping | 50% of int.time |
| VISIR | Burst read-out/nod-chopping | 80% of int.time |
| VISIR | Spectroscopy target acquisition (incl. instrument setup): | |
| VISIR | >1 Jy source | 15 |
| VISIR | 0.2 - 1 Jy source | 30 |
| VISIR | Spectroscopy read-out/chopping | 50% of int.time |
| HAWK-I | Acquisition and Instrument Setup | 1 |
| HAWK-I | Acquisition (Move to Pixel) and Instrument Setup | 3 |
| HAWK-I | Telescope offset (large) | 0.75 |
| HAWK-I | Telescope offset (small) | 0.15 |
| HAWK-I | Read Out (per DIT) | 0.03 |
| HAWK-I | Filter Change | 0.35 |
| NACO | see User's Manual | --- |
| SINFONI | Acquisition no AO | 3 |
| SINFONI | Acquisition AO (NGS) | 2 + 4*(DIT*NDIT)[9] |
| SINFONI | Acquisition AO (LGS) | 9 + 4*(DIT*NDIT)[9] |
| SINFONI | Acquisition target (AO and no AO) | 4 + 4*(DIT*NDIT) |
| SINFONI | Instrument setup (per grating change) | 2.5 |
| SINFONI | Science exposure read-out (per DIT) | 0.07 |
| SINFONI | Detector setup (per DIT x NDIT) | 0.3 |
| AMBER | One calibrated Visibility CAL-SCI-CAL | |
| AMBER | LR [10] | 15+45*(number of bands)[11] |
| AMBER | MR, HR [10] | 30+45*(number of bands)[11] |
| AMBER | One calibrated Visibility SCI-CAL | |
| AMBER | LR [10] | 10+30*(number of bands)[11] |
| AMBER | MR, HR [10] | 20+30*(number of bands)[11] |
| MIDI | One calibrated Visibility SCI-CAL [10] | 50 |
| MIDI | One calibrated Visibility CAL-SCI-CAL [10] | 75 |
| VISTA | Preset | 2 |
| VISTA | Preset (2nd OB and following in concatenation) | 0.33+ (target separation in deg)/60 |
| VIRCAM | Guide star handling | 0.05 |
| VIRCAM | Autoguiding start | 0.083 |
| VIRCAM | Active Optics start | 0.75 |
| VIRCAM | Filter change | 0.35-0.67 |
| VIRCAM | Detector readout | 0.03 per DIT |
| VIRCAM | Writing FITS to disk | 0.067 |
| VIRCAM | Pawpring change | 0.17 |
| VIRCAM | Jitter offset | 0.067 |
| VIRCAM | Micro step | 0.067 |
| VST | Preset | 2 |
| VST | Offset at template start | 0.25 |
| VST | Set rotator position angle (PA) (abs(PA) < 180) | PA/120 |
| VST | 2nd OB and following in concatenation | |
| VST | - Preset | 0.5+(target separation in deg)/90 |
| VST | - Set Rotator PA | (abs(PA_n)+abs(PA_n+1))/120 [13] |
| OmegaCAM | Guide Star (GS) aquisition | 1 |
| OmegaCAM | Acquisition of new Guide Star after offset | 1 |
| OmegaCAM | Re-acquisition of same Guide Star after offset [14] | 0.08 |
| OmegaCAM | Pick object | 0.75 |
| OmegaCAM | Filter exchange : | |
| OmegaCAM | - different magazine | 1.08 |
| OmegaCAM | - same magazine | 1.92 |
| OmegaCAM | Detector readout and data writing to disk | 0.67 |
| OmegaCAM | Start Active Optics/Image Analysis | 3 |
[1] See CRIRES User's manual for more details
[2] Typically one cycle for the target acquisition (exposure time of the acquisition image not included). MXU, MOS, and PMOS: 2 min. LSS,IPOL,ECH: 1.5 min (per cycle). IMG none.
[3] Through-slit exposures are mandatory for all spectroscopic OBs. Two cycles are typically enough to center the target on the slit (exposure time of the through slit image not included). MXU,MOS,PMOS,LSS,ECH 2.0 min (per cycle), IMG and IPOL none.
[4] Includes configuration of UVES fibres, homing the rotator to zero degrees, swapping of the plates, and the acquisition of field; telescope preset, acquisition of the guide star, and start of the active optics are not included and account with additional 6 minutes. For ARGUS fast acquisition (VM only), the acquisition overhead is 2 minutes and is calculated assuming that plate 2 is already attached to the telescope.
[5] Plate configuration takes 20 minutes at most (Medusa fibres). This does not translate into additional overheads if the running exposure on the other plate is at least 20 minutes long. Plate configuration overheads have to be added if the exposure time is shorter than 20 minutes.
[6] In a dichroic exposure the CCDs are read out in parallel.
[7] Detectors are read sequentially.
[8] Flat and arcs are mandatory for IFU.
[9] Here: DIT and NDIT as required for the AO natural guide star (NGS).
[10] This time includes all telescope and instrument overheads as well as the integration times on the science target and the calibrator.
[11] With a maximum number of 3 bands per wavelength setting. For each new wavelength setting, a new calibrated visibility has to be obtained.
[12] When switching from OBn to OBn+1 in a concatenation, the overhead for repositioning the rotator is (abs(PA(OBn)) + abs(PA(OBn+1)))/(2 deg/s). I.e. for an OB sequence with PA=90 degrees, the overhead per OB is 90s. PAs > 180 or < -180 are interpreted as modulu 360. E.g. PA=270 implies motion to PA=-90.
[13] The default dither sequence 'diagonal' with N=5 exposures will not require to change the guide star. A larger offset sequence increases the overhead due to the reaquisition of a new guide star. For exposures shorter than 1-2 minutes, observations can be performed without guiding.