LINC-NIRVANA ready to leave the clean room |
LINC-NIRVANA (LN) is a near infrared imaging instrument for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) designed to offer both multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) and interferometric beam combination for ultra high spatial resolution. LN is a collaboration between the German and Italian partners. Its Principal Investigator is Tom Herbst (MPIA – Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg).
The LN bench, without all its opto-mechanical components, was briefly introduced to its new home in November 2015 (see here).
Following 8 months of assembly, integration, and verification in the mountain clean room, on 19-Sep-2016 the instrument was rolled out of the summit clean room in preparation for the “big lift” planned for the following day. On the morning of 20-Sep-2016 the LBT staff, working in close cooperation with the LN team, carefully flew the 10-ton instrument over the instrument gallery to its designated position at the rear bent Gregorian focal station of LBT. Then on the following day, 21-Sep-2016, the instrument cover and upper instrument access platform (UIAP) were installed.
On-sky commissioning of the instrument should start in January 2017, following a short glimpse at the sky currently scheduled for late November 2016.
You will find a few pictures below and videos in the LBTO video gallery.
With the telescope safely locked at
the zenith position, LN is lowered the last few meters onto the instrument platform. |
Traveling back in time, here is a sketch of LN on the telescope as shown in the first SPIE paper on the instrument (2003). |