High Precision Astrometry with MICADO at the European Extremely Large Telescope

TL;DR

This paper analyzes various effects impacting the astrometric accuracy of MICADO at the E-ELT, identifying key challenges and proposing calibration strategies to achieve 40 micro-arcsec precision in near-infrared observations.

Contribution

It provides a detailed assessment of instrumental, atmospheric, and astronomical effects on astrometry, and discusses calibration methods to reach high-precision measurements with MICADO.

Findings

Several phenomena affect ~100 micro-arcsec scale astrometry.

Proper calibration can mitigate these effects.

Achieving 40 micro-arcsec accuracy is feasible with proper procedures.

Abstract

In this article we identify and discuss various statistical and systematic effects influencing the astrometric accuracy achievable with MICADO, the near-infrared imaging camera proposed for the 42-metre European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). These effects are instrumental (e.g. geometric distortion), atmospheric (e.g. chromatic differential refraction), and astronomical (reference source selection). We find that there are several phenomena having impact on ~100 micro-arcsec scales, meaning they can be substantially larger than the theoretical statistical astrometric accuracy of an optical/NIR 42m-telescope. Depending on type, these effects need to be controlled via dedicated instrumental design properties or via dedicated calibration procedures. We conclude that if this is done properly, astrometric accuracies of 40 micro-arcsec or better - with 40 micro-arcsec/year in proper motions corresponding to ~20 km/s at 100 kpc distance - can be achieved in one epoch of actual observations