Testing FORS: the first focal reducer for the ESO VLT

Thomas Szeifert; Immo Appenzeller; Walter Fuertig; Walter Seifert; Otmar Stahl; Hermann Boehnhardt; W. Gaebler; Reinhold Haefner; Hans-Joachim Hess; Karl-Heinz Mantel; Wolfgang Meisl; Bernard Muschielok; Karl Tarantik; Reiner Harke; Peter Juergens; Harald E. Nicklas; Gero Rupprecht

doi:10.1117/12.316782

9 July 1998 Testing FORS: the first focal reducer for the ESO VLT

Thomas Szeifert, Immo Appenzeller, Walter Fuertig, Walter Seifert, Otmar Stahl, Hermann Boehnhardt, W. Gaebler, Reinhold Haefner, Hans-Joachim Hess, Karl-Heinz Mantel, Wolfgang Meisl, Bernard Muschielok, Karl Tarantik, Reiner Harke, Peter Juergens, Harald E. Nicklas, Gero Rupprecht

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 3355, Optical Astronomical Instrumentation; (1998) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.316782
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 1998, Kona, HI, United States

Abstract

FORS1 (FOcal Reducer/low-dispersion Spectrograph) is an all dioptric focal reducer designed for direct imaging, low- dispersion multi-object spectroscopy, imaging polarimetry and spectro-polarimetry of faint objects. Two identical copies of the instrument (FORS 1 and 2) are being built by a consortium of three astronomical institutes (Landessternwarte Heidelberg and the University Observatories of Gottingen and Munich) under contract and in cooperation with ESO. FORS 1 and 2 will be installed, respectively, in 1998 and 2000 at the Cassegrain foci of the ESO VLT unit telescopes nos. 1 and 2. For the tests of FORS in Europe, a telescope and star simulator was built, which allows to incline and rotate the whole instrument and to simulate stars in the field of view at various seeing conditions. FORS 1 was integrated at the telescope simulator and saw its 'first light' in the integration facility in November 1996. Since then the electro-mechanical functions, the image motion due to flexure, the calibration units, the optical performance and the instrument software were tested and optimized. This paper presents a summary of the procedure and the results of the tests.

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Thomas Szeifert, Immo Appenzeller, Walter Fuertig, Walter Seifert, Otmar Stahl, Hermann Boehnhardt, W. Gaebler, Reinhold Haefner, Hans-Joachim Hess, Karl-Heinz Mantel, Wolfgang Meisl, Bernard Muschielok, Karl Tarantik, Reiner Harke, Peter Juergens, Harald E. Nicklas, and Gero Rupprecht "Testing FORS: the first focal reducer for the ESO VLT", Proc. SPIE 3355, Optical Astronomical Instrumentation, (9 July 1998); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.316782

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