MATISSE Commissioning

Original Commissioning

During the commissioning runs of MATISSE at VLTI in 2018 several astronomical targets were observed, in order to assess the scientific capabilities of the instrument and to optimise the observing strategies. This page provides links to selected data obtained during those runs, for both science and calibration targets.

Data obtained during those runs can be used as a reference for planning future observations and also possibly for scientific work. However, it needs to be noted that the data obtained during commissioning runs, when instrument setup and software are tested, may have some limitations. The observing times may not be optimal, the file headers may be incomplete and not homogenous, etc.

The commissioning data are grouped in packages, for science targets and individual calibrators. Links are provided to download the data both as a whole packages or file-by-file. In the second case the users can pre-select individual files before downloading.

Please note that MATISSE files are large, typically few hundred megabytes (compressed), thus downloads of large datasets may take some time.

Data

Commissioning run in February-March 2018
Run ID: 60.A-9257(A)

Science target:

Calibrator

Commissioning run in September 2018
Run ID: 60.A-9257(D)

Science target
Calibrators

Commissioning run in December 2018
Run ID: 60.A-9257(E)

Science target
Calibrators

Commissioning of GRA4MAT narrow off-axis mode; first observations of β Pic b

The following dataset was obtained on 2023-02-03, in the course of the ESO-led development of a new GRA4MAT narrow off-axis mode. This new mode allows an observer to specify small offsets where to point MATISSE, with respect to the fringe tracking target. This mode is very similar to the dual on-axis mode of GRAVITY that was successfully applied to exoplanet spectroscopy. It will be offered to the community in the Call for Proposal for Period 112.

The dataset consists of two observations of science target β Pic and calibrator HD 39918. Each dataset contains an observation sequence with MATISSE being moved on sky with the following pattern: star, planet, anti-planet, planet. Where planet corresponds to the position of β Pictoris b, at an offset from the star, predicted at (ΔRA, ΔDEC) = (284, 462) mas, at the time of observation. The anti-planet position is an observation at the same offset on the opposite side of the star, i.e. at  (ΔRA, ΔDEC) = (-284, -462) mas. The current offset position is available in the primary FITS header keywords of each released file under SEQ.OFFSET.ALPHA and SEQ.OFFSET.DELTA. MATISSE L band data for these observations are considered of scientific value, and justify this public release.

Data

GRA4MAT commissioning run in February 2023
Run ID: 60.A-9257(H)

Science target

 β Pic: package | file-by-file

Calibrator

HD 39918: package | file by file

If any of these data are used in a publication, please acknowledge that the results are based on public data released from the MATISSE commissioning observations at the VLT Interferometer under Programme IDs 60.A-9257(D), 60.A-9257(E) or 60.A-9257(H).