A star seen with the NACO APP

Image of a single star as seen with the VLT NACO instrument utilising the Apodising Phase Plate (APP) coronagraph at a wavelength of 4.05 micrometres. On the right-hand side the diffraction rings of the telescope are clearly visible, making the detection of faint sources close to the central star difficult. Without the APP this ring pattern would extend also to the left-hand side of the image, but the APP effectively suppresses the pattern to the left. No exoplanets are observed around this star.