CRIRES News

On this page, we list the main changes that (have) concerned CRIRES.

 

Timeline of instrument status

The table describes the events affecting the quality or the measurement of data obtained with CRIRES. Its content can be downloaded as a Comma Separated Values file. It is complete as of October 1st, 2021.

The Start Date column indicates when the event took place. Some events cannot be defined by a single instant, but extend over sometimes several days, weeks or months. Operation with the instrument may continue while the event occurs, in which case the Ongoing flag is set. If the event had ended, the Ongoing? flag is lowered and End Date is given. The Type column indicates the characteristic(s) of the event: Earthquake, Maintenance, Upgrade, Element failure, Intervention, Pipeline installation at QC, Change of nominal values or thresholds, Modification of configuration file of this database, or Other. The Instrument Modes column indicates the affected mode. The column KPI indicates which quality control parameters identified as Key Performance Indicators (i.e., parameters following the most critical quantities) are affected; the column non-KPI indicates which other critical Quality Control parameters are affected. The Calibration Raw Types column indicates the raw types of the affected calibrations. The Calibration Breakpoint flag indicates if calibrations obtained before the event cannot be used for science data obtained after the event or if calibration data obtained after the event cannot be used with science data obtained before the event. The Comment column provides more details. The History column allows one to see possible past information on the entry.

The Quality Control pages for CRIRES can be accessed through the QC overview page


Instrument News

  • Aug 6, 2024: CRIRES in spectroscopy mode has been successfully recommissioned and is back in operations. Due to a technical problem, the polarimetry mode is out of service, and we are working to get it back asap.
  • July 16, 2024: CRIRES is out of operations for a planned intervention of the cold heads. It is being warmed up.
  • May 14, 2024: A new version of the User Manual (Phase 2, P114) has been issued.
  • Jan 29, 2024: The RV data analysis tool VIPER has been released - see Tools page for more information.
  • Aug 25, 2023: A new version of the User Manual (Phase 1, P113) has been issued.
  • Feb 01, 2023: A new version of the User Manual (Phase 2 P111) has been issued. In addition, a completely overhauled version of the CRIRES Exposure Time Calculator is now available. Please note that the ETC also displays some spectral orders that are vignetted; please consult the User Manual, Section 7.2 for more information.
  • Jan 16, 2023: CRIRES has been successfully recommissioned and is back in operations. The warm-up and cool-down of the instrument has not affected any functionality of the instrument.
  • Jan 05, 2023: CRIRES is out of operations due to scheduled maintenance activities in the cooling system. The instrument will be warmed up.
  • Sep 30, 2022: [IMPORTANT] The position and tilt of the slits have slightly changed after the recent warm-up of CRIRES. Thus, data taken after Sep 11 should be reduced with calibrations taken after that date. Please follow the changed data reduction workflow outlined on the cr2res pipeline page.
  • Sep 15, 2022: A new version of the CRIRES ETC has been released.
  • Sep 14, 2022: CRIRES has been re-commissioned after a thermal cycle (warm up and cool down) for technical reasons.
  • Sep 12, 2022: A prototype Molecfit workflow for CRIRES has been released.
  • Aug 25, 2022: User Manual for Phase 1 P111 has been released. Note that the latest version of the CRIRES ETC will be released on Aug 31st.
  • May 18, 2022: User Manual for Phase 2 P110 has been released.
  • May 05, 2022: intervention of the warm part of CRIRES (calibration unit, MACAO) from April 24th until May 7th.
  • May 04, 2022: the metrology system is now operational in all wavelength settings.
  • Apr 01, 2022: the CRIRES camera focus has been changed, resulting in a higher spectral resolution.
  • Mar 16, 2022: a new Exposure Time Calculator version has been published
  • Feb 24, 2022: the User Manual for Phase 1 P110 has been released.
    - For P110, polarimetry and spectro-astrometry will NOT be offered for Large Programs and Monitoring Programs (see the "ESO Call for Proposals P110" document) as these modes require further characterization
  • Jan 31, 2022: An updated Exposure Time Calculator including the correct thermal background of the instrument has been released.
  • Jan 18, 2022: In the Exposure Time Calculator, the thermal background of the instrument was strongly underestimated, thereby affecting the S/N estimates for observations of (faint) targets in the K, L and M bands.
  • Oct 1st, 2021: Start of regular science operations of the upgraded CRIRES.
  • Sep 27th, 2021: Public release of the cr2res pipeline
  • Sep 15th, 2021: First night of the 4-nights long CRIRES Science Verification.
  • Sep 3rd, 2021: An updated version of the User Manual for Phase 1 P109 has been published.
  • Aug 23rd, 2021: The User Manual for Phase 1 P109 has been published - enjoy! Since data analysis of the last commissioning run is still ongoing, we will issue an updated version of the User Manual on Sep 3rd.
  • Aug 16th, 2021: The fourth CRIRES commissioning is currently underway.
  • Jul 13th, 2021: the CRIRES User Manual for P108 Phase 2 has been released.
  • Jun 24th, 2021: for Science Verification, users should not expect an RV precision better than 20 m/s.
  • Jun 17th, 2021: The Call for Proposals for Science Verification in September 2021 has been issued for the same modes that are offered for Observing Period 108 (i.e. only on-axis guiding, no polarimetry). Deadline for the proposals: July 7th.
  • Jun 14th, 2021: The third CRIRES commissioning took place between June 9 and 13. The fourth commissioning run is scheduled for August 13-18.
  • Mar 8th, 2021: new version of the CRIRES ETC released
  • Feb 26th, 2021: the CRIRES User Manual for P108 Phase 1 has been published. The CRIRES ETC will be released on March 8th.
  • Feb 2nd, 2021: the upgraded CRIRES instrument will be offered to the community in P108 with a limited set of modes. More information will be provided in the Call for Proposals for P108 and the CRIRES User Manual.
  • Feb 1st, 2021: a third and fourth commissioning run will happen in P107:
    Comm3:  27 Apr 2021 to incl. 2 May 2021, 6 nights
    Comm4: 6 nights, presumably in July or August 2021.
  • Jan 23rd, 2021: the commissioning of CRIRES is well underway, to finish on Jan 27th
  • Nov 26th, 2020: the new commissioning slots have been released.
    Comm1:  19 Jan 2021 to incl. 26 Jan 2021, 8 nights
    Comm2:  18 Feb 2021 to incl. 23 Feb 2021, 6 nights
    The instrument will be cooled down and tested during December. Expected date for the cold instrument is Dec 14th.
  • Mar 19th, 2020: The first commissioning of the upgraded CRIRES planned for March 2020 has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. News will be updated when available.
  • Feb 5th, 2020: Start of the installation of the cold part of CRIRES at the UT3 Nasmyth B focus (to be finished by Feb 18th)
  • Jan 20th, 2020: The commissioning of the warm part (adaptive optics) of CRIRES is ongoing on UT3. Commissioning will continue in Period 104 and 105 with the instrument offered to the community likely in P107. Science verification is planned for the middle of 2020 with a call for proposals being released after the first full-instrument comissioning. Details to be released on this news page and via the ESO Science newsletter.
  • Jan 9th, 2020: Start of the installation of the warm part of CRIRES at the UT3 Nasmyth B focus (to be finished by Jan 28th)
 
 

 




 
Milestones of the original CRIRES instruments:
  • The last night of CRIRES was 16th July 2014 after which the instrument was removed from UT1 for an upgrade which is described in the ESO Messenger article http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann14053/
  • CRIRES offered to the community in P79.
  • First light of CRIRES on June 6th, 2006.
  • Click here to access the archived news page of the original CRIRES (covering announcements from 2006 until 2019)