The GRAVITY spectrometers: optical design and principle of operation

Christian Straubmeier; Sebastian Fischer; Constanza Araujo-Hauck; Michael Wiest; Senol Yazici; Frank Eisenhauer; Guy Perrin; Wolfgang Brandner; Karine Perraut; Antonio Amorim; Markus Schöller; Andreas Eckart

doi:10.1117/12.855983

21 July 2010 The GRAVITY spectrometers: optical design and principle of operation

Christian Straubmeier, Sebastian Fischer, Constanza Araujo-Hauck, Michael Wiest, Senol Yazici, Frank Eisenhauer, Guy Perrin, Wolfgang Brandner, Karine Perraut, Antonio Amorim, Markus Schöller, Andreas Eckart

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7734, Optical and Infrared Interferometry II; 773432 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.855983
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Operating on 6 interferometric baselines, i.e. using all 4 unit telescopes (UTs) of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) simultaneously, the 2^nd generation VLTI instrument GRAVITY will deliver narrow-angle astrometry with 10μas accuracy at the infrared K-band. At this angular resolution, GRAVITY will be able to detect the positional shift of the photo-center of a flare at the Galactic Center within its orbital timescale of about 20 minutes, using the observed motion of the flares as dynamical probes of the gravitational field around the supermassive black hole Sgr A*. Within the international GRAVITY consortium, the 1. Physikalische Institut of the University of Cologne is responsible for the development and construction of the two spectrometers of the camera system: one for the science object, and one for the fringe tracking object. In this paper we present the phase-B optical design of the two spectrometers as it got derived from the scientific and technical requirements and as it passed the preliminary design review (PDR) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) successfully in late 2009.

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Christian Straubmeier, Sebastian Fischer, Constanza Araujo-Hauck, Michael Wiest, Senol Yazici, Frank Eisenhauer, Guy Perrin, Wolfgang Brandner, Karine Perraut, Antonio Amorim, Markus Schöller, and Andreas Eckart "The GRAVITY spectrometers: optical design and principle of operation", Proc. SPIE 7734, Optical and Infrared Interferometry II, 773432 (21 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.855983

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