Max Planck Institute for Astronomy - Annual Report 2007

Fig. IV.2.3: Schematic view of the integrated Differential Delay
Lines for PriMa.
integrated with the other DDL components and prepared
for system acceptance tests (Fig. IV.2.3 and Fig.
IV.2.4).
The other three catʼs eye optics were delivered by
Axsys to the MPIA between November 2007 and January
2008. After testing them at MPIA they were also delivered
to Geneva, where the full DDL system is being
integrated and tested before shipping to Paranal (Fig.
IV.2.5).
Fig. IV.2.4: (From left) – Ralf Launhardt, Johny Setiawan, and
Thomas Henning in the DDL integration laboratory in Geneva
with two of the four DDLs visible in the foreground.
High-quality optical windows for the vacuum vessels
were manufactured by the company Halle (Berlin). They
were also tested at the MPIA and were found to fulfill the
accuracy requirements.
Software developments
IV.2 Instruments for the VLT 105
Software developments by the esPri consortium include
Observation Preparation Software for PriMa astrometry
(coordinated from Geneva) and the complete astrometric
data reduction package (coordinated at LSW). Data reduction
from raw instrumental data to calibrated delays
will proceed fully automatically with two pipelines and a
set of calibration parameters that is re-derived every few
months from all available PriMa astrometry data. The
software packages will be delivered to eso prior to the
commissioning of the instrument and will be available to