Programme description:

This programme aims at resolving Mira in and out of molecular lines/bands
by means of narrow-band imaging. Mira has a slightly oval shape with a
typical diameter of 60 mas, i.e. it should be easily resolved by NACO
in the J-band, and clearly distinct from a point source in the K-band.

Because of the high infrared brightness of Mira (J=-1.0mag, K=-2.4mag)
the use of the neutral density filter in combination with narrow-band
filters and the S13 camera (smallest pixel scales) is mandatory. Furthermore,
saturation of Mira can only be avoided by using DITs <=0.04s in J and 
<=0.01s in Ks, hence windowed readout of the detector is required.

Two (unresolved) PSF stars have to be observed with the same instrumental
set-up in order to provide the proper calibration, and facilitate a
direct link-up of VLTI short baseline visibilities to NACO data.


OB Information:

Since windowed readout is not supported by OBs, these observations
require intervention by the instrument operators from the CONICA
IRACE subpanel.

One PSF star could be observed just before the Mira observations, and
the other afterwards (check maximum admissable DIT on Mira first).


List of Science OBs with Associated Finding Charts:

Total number of Science/Calibration OBs: 3
Total number of Finding Charts: 3

Mira.obx              Mira.aocfg
Mira-PSF1.obx         ZetaCet.aocfg
Mira-PSF2.obx         GammaCet.aocfg


Contact: Andrea Richichi/Wolfgang Brandner