GRAVITY Documentation

To prepare and analyse observations with GRAVITY at the VLT interferometer, the user can find all the necessary information in the various manuals listed on this page. Please be sure to use the version of the manuals which is relevant to the period(s) in which the observations will take place. In case there are no changes, the latest version of the respective manual is still valid. All the manuals are in pdf format.

  • Instrument User Manual. All the information about the instrument itself, its modes and their characteristics.
    • Issue 098, to be used for the P098 call for proposal (deadline March 31th, 2016) and the science verification runs in P97.
    • Issue 099, valid for Period 099 (deadline September 30th, 2016).
    • Issue 100, valid for Period 100 (deadline March 31th, 2017).
    • Issue 101, valid for Period 101 (deadline September 30th, 2017).
    • Issue 102, valid for Period 102 (deadline March 28th, 2018).
    • Issue 103, valid for Period 103 (deadline September 27th, 2018).
    • Issue 104, valid for Period 104 (deadline March 28th, 2019).
    • Issue 105, valid for Period 105 (deadline September 26th, 2019).
    • Issue 106, valid for Periods 106 - 109 (P106 deadline March 26th, 2020)
    • Issue 110, valid for Periods 110 - 111 (P110 deadline March 25th, 2022)
    • Issue 112, valid for Period 112 Phase 1 (P112 deadline March 28th 2023)
    • Issue 112b, valid for Period 112 Phase 2 onwards (Phase 2 of P112 and P113 Call for Proposals in September 2023)
    • Issue 114, valid for Period 114 Phase 1 
    • Issue 115, valid for Period 115 Phase 1 
  • Template User Manual. Detailed information on the acquisition and observing templates.
    • Issue 098, to be used for Science Verification in P097 and P098 phase 2.
    • Issue 099, to be used for P099 (updated version 2017-01-31).
    • Issue 100, to be used for P100 (updated version 2017-08-01).
    • Issue 101, to be used for P101.
    • Issue 102, to be used for P102.
    • Issue 103, to be used for P103.
    • Issue 104, to be used for P104 and P105.
    • Issue 106, to be used for P106 - P109
    • Issue 109b, to be used from GRAVITY Wide Science Verification onwards (SV in P109, normal call in P110 and P111)
    • Issue 112, to be used for P112  
    • Issue 114, to be used for P114
    • Issue 115, to be used for P115
  • VLTI User Manual. The VLTI User Manual is to be used in addition to the GRAVITY User Manual for VLTI aspects and system limits common to the VLTI instruments.
  • Instructions on how to prepare OBs using the p2 web aplication are available at the GRAVITY p2 tutorial.