VLTI Configurations Overview

IMPORTANT: Note that according to the P95 Call For Proposal "Starting in March 2015 and during Period 95, the laboratory will undergo major modifica- tions in view of the arrival of the 2nd generation instruments GRAVITY and MATISSE as well as ESPRESSO, which will go in the nearby combined-coud ́e laboratory. As a conse- quence, MIDI will be decommissioned in March 2015, during Period 94, and AMBER and the Visitor Instrument, PIONIER, are not offered in Period 95. AMBER and PIONIER will be offered again in Period 96. "

In Period 90 (1/10/2012 - 31/3/2013) up to Period 94 (1/10/2014 - 31/3/2015) the following configurations are offered with the VLTI.

For configuration offered in P87 to P89 please look at the following link

Configurations offered using the UTs

AMBER is offered on all four available UT triples:

  • UT1-UT2-UT3
  • UT1-UT2-UT4
  • UT1-UT3-UT4
  •  UT2-UT3-UT4
  • MIDI is offered on all six UT baselines:

  • UT1-UT2-57m
  • UT1-UT3-102m
  • UT1-UT4-130m
  • UT2-UT3-47m
  • UT2-UT4-89m
  • UT3-UT4-62m
  • Configurations offered using the Auxillary Telescopes

    Starting with P85 the Auxillary Telescopes are offered in 4 telescopes configurations. For each of these quadruplets, all possible 2 telescopes and 3 telescopes configurations can be used.

    At the time of Phase 1, user are only requested to provide informations on which of the available quadruplets they wish to use for observations. The decision on which specific baselines will be used at the time of the observation will be decided at the time of the Phase 2 or in preparation of the visitor run.

    The 3 offered quadruplets are:

  • 'large': A1-G1-K0-J3 (or A1-G1-K0-I1 if J3 is unavailable)
  • 'intermediate': D0-H0-G1-I1
  • 'small': A1-B2-C1-D0
  • It is expected that in the course of P92, continuing to P93, the station J3 will not be available. The large configuration will then be replaced by A1-G1-K0-I1.

    For reference the available configuration for AMBER and MIDI are:

    AMBER is offered for 12 triples:

  • A1-K0-G1
  • A1-K0-J3
  • A1-G1-J3
  • K0-G1-J3
  • D0-H0-G1
  • D0-H0-I1
  • D0-G1-I1
  • H0-G1-I1
  • A1-B2-C1
  • A1-B2-D0
  • A1-C1-D0
  • B2-C1-D0
  • MIDI is offered with 16 baselines:

  • A1-J3-140m
  • G1-J3-132m
  • A1-K0-129m
  • K0-G1- 90m
  • D0-I1- 82m
  • A1-G1- 80m
  • D0-G1- 72m
  • H0-G1- 72m
  • D0-H0- 64m
  • K0-J3- 57m
  • G1-I1- 47m
  • H0-I1- 41m
  • A1-D0- 36m
  • B2-D0- 34m
  • C1-D0- 23m
  • A1-C1- 16m
  • A1-B2- 11m
  • B2-C1- 11m
  • For details on the offered modes please refer to the current Call for Proposals and the VLTI manual. In all cases, please verify your observations with VisCalc.