Summary

SPHERE is the extreme adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility at the VLT. Its primary science goal is imaging, low-resolution spectroscopic, and polarimetric characterization of extra-solar planetary systems at optical and near-infrared wavelengths.

Publications based on data obtained with the SPHERE instrument should quote the following reference paper: Beuzit et al., 2019 (A&A 631, A155). They should also cite the appropriate references for the observing modes that were used.

Contact Information

• Questions related to proposal preparation, service mode, and visitor mode observations should be addressed via the contact form at  ESO Operations Helpdesk.
• Please, send us your general feedback, comments, suggestions, or report errors and inaccurate statements in the web pages and manuals also via this contact form.

Content of these pages

The following items are available on all the SPHERE pages, using the bar on the left.

• Overview: a short description of the instrument.
• Calibrations: a summary of the night-time and day-time calibration of SPHERE.
• News: list of changes affecting the instrument and/or its pages.
• Instrument Description: all the important parameters of the instrument.
• Manuals: links to all the documents related to SPHERE.
• Tools: a collection of useful tools and informations for preparing and analyzing the SPHERE observations.
• Instrument Operations Team.
• Visitor Instructions: Instrument specific instructions for Visiting Astronomers.
• Science: Science done with SPHERE, incl. during Science Verification.