The 2nd Generation VLTI path to performance

TL;DR

This paper reports on the recent upgrades and commissioning of the VLTI infrastructure, including new instruments and performance assessments, to enhance its capabilities for the next generation of astronomical observations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive update on VLTI's infrastructure upgrades, instrument commissioning, and performance roadmap development for advanced interferometric astronomy.

Findings

Successful installation of star separators on telescopes

Initial commissioning results of the Gravity fringe tracker

Ongoing astrometric measurements and performance evaluations

Abstract

The upgrade of the VLTI infrastructure for the 2nd generation instruments is now complete with the transformation of the laboratory, and installation of star separators on both the 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) and the 8-m Unit Telescopes (UTs). The Gravity fringe tracker has had a full semester of commissioning on the ATs, and a first look at the UTs. The CIAO infrared wavefront sensor is about to demonstrate its performance relative to the visible wavefront sensor MACAO. First astrometric measurements on the ATs and astrometric qualification of the UTs are on-going. Now is a good time to revisit the performance roadmap for VLTI that was initiated in 2014, which aimed at coherently driving the developments of the interferometer, and especially its performance, in support to the new generation of instruments: Gravity and MATISSE.