NACO Observations of Mira
Andrea Richichi/Wolfgang Brandner
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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.