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Introduction

The FORS1 and FORS2 FOcal Reducer/low dispersion Spectrographs are expected to be something like the workhorses of the VLT since they will offer a variety of observing modes in the visual and near ultraviolet wavelength range, namely

  1. direct imaging (2 image scales)
  2. low dispersion grism spectroscopy
  3. multi object spectroscopy (MOS; up to 19 objects)
  4. polarimetry (FORS1 only).
These modes can be combined e.g. to allow imaging polarimetry or spectropolarimetry. In addition, a mode offering higher dispersion (possibly up to ~5000) is envisaged for FORS2 which will therefore not be equipped with polarimetric optics. An overview of the FORS project can be found in [1]. A more comprehensive description of the expected instrument performance is given in [2] and [5] and more technical descriptions in [3] and [4].



Gero Rupprecht
Mon Jul 3 17:01:44 MET DST 1995