ESPRESSO
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ESPRESSO is a third-generation, fiber fed, cross-dispersed, echelle spectrograph mounted on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT). The unit saw its first light with one VLT in December 2017 and first light with all four VLT units in February 2018.
ESPRESSO spectrograph concept at the Preliminary Design Review.
ESPRESSO spectrograph optical design at the Preliminary Design Review.
Data from ESPRESSO First Light.
First light of the ESPRESSO instrument with all four unit telescopes
Very Large Telescope
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The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with a primary mirror that measures 8.2 meters in diameter. These optical telescopes, named Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun, are generally used separately but can be combined to achieve a very high angular resolution. The VLT array is also complemented by four movable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) with 1.8-meter apertures.
The four Unit Telescopes that form the VLT together with the four Auxiliary Telescopes (VST at right)
VLT's four Unit Telescopes
Laser used for adaptive optics. It excites sodium atoms in the atmosphere and creates a laser guide star.
Upgrading Yepun (UT4) with the "Adaptive Optics Facility" in 2012