ESO ETCs & Simulations

Exposure Time Calculators (ETCs) play an important role in the overall process of ESO science operations. They are intended to give astronomers the ability to predict the signal to noise achieved under a set of assumptions about the performance of an instrument and the observing conditions. The accuracy of these predictions will improve as the instrument is calibrated and tracked under actual operational conditions. For the moment, ETC accuracy is dependent on preliminary calibrations and estimates of operational conditions. Users are advised to exert caution in the interpretation of the results and to report any result which may appear inconsistent.

Documentation

General descriptions for optical, infrared, UVES and VIMOS instruments.
Performance statement, Frequently Asked Questions.
Formula Book for signal and noise estimates.
Characteristic curves for the various optical components.

Exposure Time Calculators & Simulations

	Observation Domain
Facility	Optical		Infrared
Facility	Imaging	Spectroscopy	Imaging	Spectroscopy
La Silla	EMMI EFOSC2 SUSI 2p2 WFI	EMMI EFOSC2 HARPS FEROS	SOFI	SOFI
Paranal UT1	FORS2 FORS(P83+)	FORS2 FORS(P83+)	ISAAC SW LW	CRIRES ISAAC SW LW
Paranal UT2	FORS1	UVES FLAMES+UVES GIRAFFE FORS1 X-SHOOTER
Paranal UT3	VIMOS	VIMOS MOS IFU	VISIR	VISIR
Paranal UT4			NACO HAWK-I	NACO SINFONI
Paranal VISTA			VIRCAM
VLTI Calculators	VisCalc CalVin
E-ELT	Imaging Spectroscopy

Notes

The UVES and HAWK-I ETCs and the VLTI tool VisCalc were updated for P85 and released on 01/09/2009.

Release Plan
Optical Imaging	Released 3.2.7 on 28/08/2008
Optical Spectroscopy	Released 3.2.7 on 28/08/2008 Released 3.2.7a on 04/03/2009 (GIRAFFE)
Infrared Imaging (SW, LW)	Released 3.2.1 on 30/08/2007 Released 3.2.9 on 30/08/2009 (HAWK-I)
Infrared Spectroscopy (SW, LW)	Released 3.2.1 on 30/08/2007
Echelle Spectroscopy	Released 3.2.10 on 01/09/2009 Released 3.2.9 on 16/07/2009 (X-SHOOTER)
Infrared Adaptive Optics	Released 3.2.8 on 29/06/2009 (CRIRES) Released 3.2.7 on 23/01/2009 (SINFONI) Released 3.2.6 on 20/06/2008 (NACO) Released 3.1.0 on 25/07/2006 (VISIR spectroscopy)
VLTI Calculators	Released 4.1.2 on 01/09/2009 (VisCalc) Released 2.0.3 on 20/06/2008 (CalVin)
E-ELT	Released 2.11 on 12/09/2008