VLT1 02 – Dez2000

This image shows VINCI (VLT INterferometer Commissioning Instrument), the "test camera" of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), and LEONARDO, its calibration source. VINCI was used at the very beginning of the VLTI to test and commission the facility before the arrival of the official instruments AMBER and MIDI. It was able to combine the light of 2 telescopes (AT or UT) and measure accurately the obtained interference fringes.

The picture was taken during the tests in Europe in one of ESO's Garching laboratories before shipment to Paranal.

The right table is occupied by LEONARDO. The black body source is in the insulated blue box. The left table is occupied by VINCI itself. Its core is the fibered beam combiner called MONA (the grey box with 8 optical fibers) and the infrared camera LISA (the gold cryogenic tank behind MONA).