Technical Requirements for VLTI Visitor Instruments

The option to bring Visitor Instrument into the VLTI facility has been offered to permit innovative observations by teams using stand-alone instruments. The Visitor Instrument (VI) teams should in particular be able to react quickly to new scientific and/or technical opportunities. VIs are therefore free from a substantial fraction of the requirements imposed on VLTI facility instruments.

The requirements of the VLTI towards VIs are collected in this document and the Interface Control Document between VLTI and its instruments can be accessed here.

These documents are advanced draft versions. They are being updated and should serve as a basis for discussion until final versions are released. It is strongly recommended that a VI team double-check with ESO (through the contact person assigned to the instrument in question) all necessary details before designing critical items.