VLT-MAN-ESO-14650-4942
P96
24.06.2015
12 of 161
ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
1.1 Scope
The X-shooter User Manual provides extensive information on the technical characteristics of
the instrument, its performances, observing and calibration procedures and data reduction.
1.2 X-shooter in a nutshell
X-shooter is a single target spectrograph for the Cassegrain focus of one of the VLT UTs
covering in a single exposure the spectral range from the UV to the K band. The spectral
format is fixed. The instrument is designed to maximize the sensitivity in the spectral range
through the splitting in three arms with optimized optics, coatings, dispersive elements and
detectors. It operates at intermediate resolutions (R=4000-18000, depending on wavelength
and slit width) sufficient to address quantitatively a vast number of astrophysical applications
while working in a background-limited S/N regime in the regions of the spectrum free from
strong atmospheric emission and absorption lines. A 3D CAD view of the instrument
attached to the telescope is shown on Figure 1. Main instrument characteristics are
summarized in Table 1.
A Consortium involving institutes from Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, France and ESO
built x-shooter. Name of the institutes and their respective contributions are given in Table 2.
1.3 Shortcuts to most relevant facts for proposal preparation
The fixed spectral format of X-shooter: see Table 11 on page 50
Spectral resolution as a function of slit width: see Table 12 on page 52
Information on the IFU: see Section 2.2.1.3
Information on limiting magnitudes in the continuum: see Section 2.3.3 on page 53
Information on observing modes: see section 3.1 on page 64
Observing strategy and sky subtraction: see Section 3.3 on page 67
Overhead computation: see Section 4 on page 84
Table 2: collaborating institutes and their contributions
Copenhagen University
Observatory
Backbone unit, UVB spectrograph, Mechanical
design and FEA, Control electronics
Project Management and Systems Engineering,
Detectors, final system integration,
commissioning, logistics, Data Reduction
Software
Paris-Meudon Observatory,
Paris VII University
Integral Field Unit, Data Reduction Software
INAF - Observatories of Brera,
Catania, Trieste and Palermo
UVB and VIS spectrograph, Instrument Control
Software, optomechanical design.
Astron, Universities of
Amsterdam and Nijmegen
NIR spectrograph, contribution to Data
Reduction Software
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