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FLAMES News

On this page, we list the main changes that have affected the instrument and this web site.
  • Nov 4, 2009. UVES pipeline 4.4.8 supporting new red CCD (and old) data reduction.
  • Sep 1, 2009. FLAMES-UVES ETC updated with new QE curve for the upgraded MIT CCD.
  • Aug 28, 2009. All manuals updated for P85 including the GIRAFFE reduction cookbook. Please send comments to flames@eso.org. The main change for P85 is that FLAMES-UVES is more sensitive above 700-nm with less fringing and that the VLT guide star magnitude should now be ideally between mR=9 and 11.
  • Aug 26, 2009. The current UVES pipeline will NOT work with the upgraded CCD mosaic. This webpage will be updated when the release has been made.
  • Aug 26, 2009. The UVES red arm quantum efficiency ratio for the new/old MIT CCD is shown below (left panel) as derived in the lab and from standard stars. The EEV (bluer part of the red mosaic) is UNCHANGED. The MIT (redder part of the red mosaic) CCD "Nigel" was replaced with another MIT CCD "Zeus" in early July 2009 with superior Quantum Efficiency above 700-nm. The fringing is also much reduced; Plot (a) shows an extracted FLAMES-UVES flatfield order at about 900-nm with the Old CCD counts multiplied by 2.5 (same integration time). Plot (b) shows one normalised order of a stellar spectrum taken before and after the upgrade for standalone UVES.

  • Jun 25, 2009. Please remember that the ETC will only be upgraded with the new sensitivity values for the UVES (MIT) red-arm after the recomissioning in early July. When the new values are known they will be posted with a link on this webpage. Until then the current ETC should still be used.
  • Jun 23, 2009. Broken and low-throughput fibre page updated for Phase II. See here for the current status.
  • Jun 19, 2009. FLAMES User manual updated for P84 Phase II. Go here for the document.
  • Jun 2, 2009. GIRAFFE pipline 2.8 released, see here for details.
  • May 1, 2009. Note that because of the upgrade to one of the UVES red CCDs, FLAMES-UVES will not be available until mid-July 2009. FLAMES-GIRAFFE observations continue as normal.
  • Feb 25, 2009. Important change for P84 proposals: For P84 for ARGUS only, the GIRAFFE settings L385.7, H379.0, H395.8 and H412.4 will be offered in Visitor Mode ONLY due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient counts in the attached flatfields. Medusa and IFU are available in Service Mode for all settings. We hope in the future to improve the screen-flat lamp strength in the blue so that we can again offer Argus blue settings in Service Mode.
  • Dec 1-3, 2008. FLAMES 6th anniversary meeting; see the ESO Messenger article. The scientific programme with presentations is shown here. An open session at the end of the meeting provided several suggestions for improvements that will be investigated in due course.
  • May 25 2008 - Jul 10 2008 and for probably all the old CCD bias images at a lower level: History effect for Biases. The first bias in the normal 5 in the series was sometimes lower by upto about 2 ADU than the subsequent four images. This could cause errors in bias subtraction depending on the paramaters used by the GIRAFFE pipeline. All service mode data have been re-reduced using the overscan region and not the master bias to remove this problem. Since 2008-07-10 a 2-min gap has been added between the taking of the biases and the effect is no longer present. Note that the effect affected biases taken with the old CCD although at a lower level. See here for details.
  • March 1, 2008: The QE of the new detector to the existing one is shown below. A considerable improvement in the sensitivity is expected for wavelengths above 650nm.
  • March 16, 2007: Upgrade of GIRAFFE CCD discussed during the last IOT. Upgrade date still to be confirmed (P80 or P81).
  • March 03, 2007: FLAMES TCCD successfully replaced by the new generation TCCD.
  • April 25, 2005: GIRAFFE CCD decontamination. See details.
  • November 23, 2004: Updated user manual for Science Verification and GTO observations
  • October 21, 2004: Please find here links to the Science Verfication page and the Guarantied Time Observation projects.
  • 2004 Dec 7th. Sky flatfields that can be used to create a Solar Spectrum have been taken for all ARGUS HR and LR setttings. They will soon be available in the ESO archive. The programme ID used was: 60.A-9022(B). The Object name for all data is: SKY_spectrum_field. The dates taken were; 2004-11-26 (LR settings), 2004-11-30 and 2004-12-02 (HR settings). January 5, 2005: Updated data for the AO instrument performance.
  • 2004 Nov 4th. Sky flatfields that can be used to create a Solar Spectrum have been taken for all Medusa HR and LR setttings, plus FLAMES-UVES 520, 580, 860-nm. . They are available in the ESO archive. The programme ID used was: 60.A-9022(B). The Object name for all data is: SKY_spectrum_field. The dates taken were; 2004-09-26, 2004-09-28 (HR settings) and 2004-10-11 (LR settings).
  • 2004 Sept 7th. List of GIRAFFE settings which are reduced by the Pipeline on Paranal released.
  • 2004 July 29th. Visitor webpages updated.
  • 2004 July 19th. New versions of the Manuals released. Main changes are in the User Manual. See here.
  • 2004 July 1st. On-going efforts to characterise the velocity accuracy of FLAMES-UVES and FLAMES-GIRAFFE. Please email jsmoker@eso.org if you want details.
  • 2004 June 1. Version of the GIRAFFE pipeline on Paranal has been released since April 2004.
  • 2004 April 21. Version of the UVES pipeline released that will reduce both old-and-new format UVES data. See here for details.
  • 2004 April 7th P73 preparations. (1) The UVES red format has changed. This means that new FLAMES-UVES data will need to be reduced with the new UVES pipeline. (2) We have added a new column to the "binary FLAMES FIBRE Table" HDU3. This is called "FPD" which stands for "Fibre Position on Detector". It is the last column in the table which now reads "..... 700 870 X Y FPD". FPD is the same as FPS in all cases but ARGUS where the numbering is reversed. (3) We have added a new FITS keyword to the GIRAFFE headers. This is called "INS.EXP.MODE". This matches the "p2pp name" given in the following webpages for the HR grating and the LR grating.
  • 2004 March 14th. The approximate efficiencies of the new HR settings have been posted on the Giraffe webpage; here.
  • 2004 March 4th. From P73 in Visitor Mode (VM) only, and from P74 in both Service Mode (SM) and Visitor mode, seven (7) new HR grating settings will be added. All but one of these work in higher order (therefore higher resolution but lower throughput -sometimes only 25 per cent) than the current settings. A further HR setting now covers both H-alpha and Li6707 (VM only P73, SM/VM P74). See here.
  • 2004 January 15th. New versions of the FLAMES user manual and Template reference guide available for P73. Main changes are that (1) there are now 24 HR grating settings as opposed to 22 previously, (2) The OB execution time is calculated automatically within p2pp and (3) ARGUS fast templates are available in p2pp for visitor mode.
  • 2003 October: New GIRAFFE higher-efficiency HR grating installed; available for P72. Note that this has lead to a decrease in resolution for some settings. See here for details.
  • 2003 July 21: FLAMES User Manual V1.1 released for P72.
  • 2003 July: ARGUS mode commissioned successfully; available for P72. For technical details cf. the (public) Commissioning Report
  • 2003 June: FACB 149 succesfully installed and calibrated on plate 1 and 2
  • 2003 May: FLAMES commissioning data released
  • 2003 May: Giraffe BLDRS available at SourceForge
  • 2003 March: New Pre-Flames Survey Data Release
  • 2003 February/March: Early Start of Science Operation Period 71
  • 2003 January: Science Verification
  • 2002 December: Paranalization II
  • 2002 November: Paranalization I
  • 2002 October: Commissioning III
  • 2002 August: Commissioning II
  • 2002 June: Commissioning I
  • 2002 April: GIRAFFE installation at UT2
  • 2002 March: First Light UVES-fibres
  • 2002 February: Installation of OzPoz at UT2
  • 2001 December 19: Giraffe First Light in Garching Integration Hall.
  • 2001 December: Preliminary Acceptance Australia Fibre Positioner
  • 2001 Novemmber: Giraffe L-R grating arrived at ESO.
  • 2001 October: Commissioning Corrector at Kueyen.
  • 2001 September: Acceptance of the Corrector Optics
  • 2001 July: FLAMES User Wokshop.
  • 2001 Jan: status presented at the ESO Wide Review 2001.
  • 2001 Jan: Giraffe optical table integrated on the enclosure.
  • 2000 Dec: Giraffe collimator and camera completed.
  • 2000 July: FLAMES Software FDR succesfully passed.
  • 2000 May: FLAMES fully under construction.