Summary

The VLT spectrometer and imager for the mid-infrared (VISIR) was built by CEA/DAPNIA/SAP and NFRA/ASTRON, and is located at the Cassegrain focus of UT2. It provides diffraction-limited imaging at high sensitivity in three mid-infrared (MIR) atmospheric windows: the M-band at 5µm, the N-band between 8 to 13μm and the Q band between 17 and 20μm, respectively. The imager also provides sparse aperture masking and coronagraphy. In addition, VISIR features a long-slit spectrometer with a range of spectral resolutions between 150 and 30000.

Publications based on data obtained with the VISIR instrument should quote the following reference paper: Lagage, P.O. et al. 2004, The Messenger 117, 12.

Contact Information

• Questions related to proposal preparation, service mode, and visitor mode observations should be addressed via the contact form at ESO Operations Helpdesk.
• Please, send us your general feedback, comments, suggestions, or report errors and inaccurate statements in the web pages and manuals also via this contact form.

Content of these pages

The following items are available on the VISIR pages. They can also be accessed using the bar on the left.

• Overview: a short description of the instrument
• News: list of changes affecting the instrument and/or its pages.
• Instrument Description: all the important parameters of the instrument.
• Manuals: links to all the documents related to VISIR.
• Tools: a collection of useful tools and informations for preparing and analyzing the VISIR observations.
• Instrument Operations Team: The team operating and supporting the instrument.
• Visitor Instructions: Instrument specific instructions for Visiting Astronomers
• Science: Image gallery and astronomical highlights
• Upgrade Project: A description of the VISIR upgrade project and its progress.