Latest News

July 2010	2010 Annual report available	The activies performed by our department in 2010 are described here in the annual report
July 2010	2010 SPIE article avalaible!!!	The SPIE 2010 article are available under the documents sectionof our web pages. These articles share the expertise and relate some work done by our department in various domains like cryogenic pump vibrations, integration of adaptive optics systems, liquid cooling systems. You will find also an article on the first concept of E-ELT cryogenics infrastructure.
October 2008	Last run of MAD	In August 2008, MAD had its last observing run in Paranal. It was used in total for more than 60 nights and installed/dismounted 3 times (it had to let the visitor platform free for other instruments). MAD was shipped back in Garching were it will be re-integrated for further testing and improvements. During its last run we could observe Jupiter using two satellites as guiding objects. The IR image is one of the sharpest ever obtained from ground. More here about MAD
August 2008	Active segmented mirror completion	The 61 segments of the active segmented mirror (ASM) developped for APE project have been fully integrated by Christophe Dupuy. It has been designed at ESO to simulate primary segmentation in APE by imaging on it the VLT pupil over a diameter of 130 mm. The size of the segments and the distance between two mirror edges are approximately 100 times smaller than of an ELT. Each segment of this key subsystem is controlled with a resolution of the order of a few nanometers, in Piston, Tip and Tilt by means of piezo actuators having a stroke of 30 micrometers. More on the ASM here.
Jan 2008	Integration department retrospective	Our department has been involved for many years in the first generation VLT instruments. We present here the various projects in which we have been deeply involved and the developments we made for the instruments. This is a very interesting retrospective.
August 2007	HAWK-I integration	The HAWK-I (High Acuity Wild field K band Imager) main mechanical structure has been installed at the Nasmyth of UT4 in Paranal. The integration has been succesfuly completed by August. The instrument will enter now in the commissioning phase for final approval. For more information about HAWK-I, have a look to the instrument web page here
April 2007	MAD first MCAO ever	On the evening of 25 March 2007, the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) achieved First Light at the Visitor Focus of Melipal. MAD allowed the scientists to obtain images corrected for the blurring effect of atmospheric turbulence over the full 2x2 arcminute field of view. This world premiere shows the promises of a crucial technology for Extremely Large Telescopes. This visitor instrument was fully integrated uder the responsibility of the integration and cryo-vacuum department. More here for pictures and explanations.

Look at Our Web Page Last Updates

• 2010-09: Upload of all 2010 SPIE articles (9 of them!) can be found on the documents section
• Our department has grown this year. Gerd Jakob from Germany and Andrew Bruton from Scotland have joined ESO and will help us in the field of cryogenics and mechanics. Gerd is a cryogenic system engineer and Andrew is a technician specialized in vacuum and mechanics.
• An interesting retrospective on our department involvment in the first generation VLT instrument
• New integration slideshow of ASM development. Get explanations and pictures of the Active Segmented Mirror here.
• New integration slideshow of CRIRES. Get explanations and pictures of CRIRES
• Some explanations on the development we made on Continuous Flow Cryostats for our cryogenic instruments