Instructions for Visiting Astronomers

• Remember to read the latest CRIRES news.
• Any questions about your visitor mode run, email crires@eso.org.
• Look at the CRIRES telescope allocation schedule. Check that your targets are not too close to the Moon (>30 degrees if possible). If they are very close (<10 degrees) then the telesccope Active Optics and/or CRIRES Adaptive Optics may not work.
• Remember to prepare a backup program in case of poor seeing, thin clouds or strong winds (usually southern targets [DEC<-24.6 deg] are required in this case). To do this fill out this webform. Recall that without prior-approval, only targets in your Phase I proposal should be observed. Please send the backup request well in advance and not at the last minute when it may be impossible to approve. Recall that the VLT cannot observe through the zenith so take care in scheduling observations of sources with declinations within about 3 degrees of -24.6.
• Read the User manual!. In particular, note that: (1) Normally 3 darks, 3 flatfields and a wavelength calibration (for settings < 2400-nm only) are taken the morning after your observations. You can ask your Night Astronomer to do more and/or change the DIT/NDIT combination of the Darks. (2) Slit widths of more than 0.4 arcseconds lead to contamination of your spectra by adjacent orders so are in general not recommended. From P88 it is likely that we will move to two fixed slit widths of 0.2 and 0.4 arcseconds. (3) The CRIRES entrance slit shows variations in its width exceeding 30 per cent. This can be reduced to less than 10 percent by checking its width before your observations with some overhead. In P88 we will likely get rid of this problem by moving to two fixed slit widths (4) AO observations of bright targets with thick cloud are not allowed due to the possibility of damaging the Avalanche Photo Diodes. Objects brighter than 10.5 in R should be avoided. (5) If SEQ.NGS.USELASTSKY is set to 'F' you need to be sure that the sky position chosen (by default 4 arcseconds East and 4 arcseconds North) is free of stars. Otherwise, damage to the APDs may result. The offset can be changed. (6) AO stars must be fainter than about R=1.0 magnitude (depending on the colour) (7) If you plan to use a visitor gas cell, please email crires@eso.org in advance of your run.
• Quick-look reduced data should be available of your observations. These will not be put on the DVD provided at the end of your run and should not be used for science purposes.
• Please complete an end-of-mission report when your observing run is completed