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CRIRES News

On this page, we list the main changes that affected CRIRES and this web site.

    • May 26th 2012: From P90 attached calibrations will be possible with a 0.2 or 0.4 arcsecond slit. Time links and containers will also be available within p2pp3, for example for science-telluric observations. Characterisation of the CRIRES slit viewer is ongoing and results will be presented in the P90 manual.
    • Feb 26th 2012: CRIRES user manual for phase I period 90 updated. Main changes are (1) PWV will be a constraint from P90; the ETC has been updated accordingly and it is planned to include the value of PWV in the FITS header. (2) From P89 no PI packs for service mode observations have been distributed. PIs should use the ESO archive to download their data and use calSelector to obtain the correct calibrations for reduction purposes. (3) From P90 the calibration frequency may be reduced and (4) From P90 it will be possible to set the slit width for the night-time calibrations to 0.2 or 0.4 arcseconds.
    • Feb 25th 2012: Spectrophotometric standard Eta Hy before (red) and after (green) the slit intervention in September 2011. Detectors 1,2,3 and 4 are shown. At the very bluest settings detectors 1 and 4 are not useable although in any case they suffered from order contamination in pre-September 2011 observations. Reference wavelengths from top to bottom are 1087, 1504, 2205 and 3611-nm.
    • Nov 22nd 2011: Flatfield levels before and after the replacement of the slit. The levels are now much more stable that may indicate some reduction in the frequency of calibrations in the future. The red points are the raw data, the green points are scaled points:

    • Oct 14 2011: CRIRES back in operations with two fixed slits at 0.2 and 0.4 arcseconds width, plus a closed position. There are three issues still under investigation related to (1) The focus of the system on the slit viewer camera vs the spatial direction on the science detector (2) Relative flux levels in flatfields at 0.2 and 0.4 slit widths (3) Comparison of standard star data pre- and post- intervention. More details to be added here. User manual will be updated before phase 2 when the web-pages will also be changed.
    • Sep 21 2011: CRIRES intervention started to replace the entrance slit unit with one with fixed slit widths 0.2 and 0.4 arcseconds only, plus perform maintenance tasks including closed cycle cooler replacement.
    • Sep 05 2011: CRIRES user manual was released on Sept 5th for P89 phase 1. Note that an update to this document will be performed at the start of October 2011 after the move to fixed slits of 0.2 and 0.4 arcseconds.
    • Jun 22 2011: CRIRES user manual was released on June 20th 2011 for P88 phase 2.
    • Jun 22 2011: It is likely that with the change to fixed slits of 0.2 and 0.4 arcseconds and the introduction of metrology in P88 that the repeatability and accuracy of flatfields and wavelength calibrations will improve. To reduce the calibration load then the validity of calibrations may be increased from 1 day starting in P89.
    • Jun 21 2011: The CRIRES ETC has been changed to (1) Decrease the predicted S/N ratio by a factor 1.3 for wavelengths beneath 1.1 microns (2) Only allow seeing of less than 1.4 arcseconds for AO OBs.
    • Jun 01 2011: The assumed overheads for Generic offset mode were in error. An overhead of 12 seconds per offset is now assumed.
    • Jun 01 2011: The new instrument package for CRIRES (for P88) will only allow slit widths of 0.0 (closed slit, not used at the moment), 0.2 and 0.4 arcseconds.
    • May 05 2011: Investigation into ETC througput in the J-band onging.
    • Apr 14 2011. Dark levels for 300-s DIT darks now back to normal:
    • Apr 11 2011. New version of CRIRES user manual released. Only the front cover names have changed.
    • Mar 27 2011. Detector 4 is showing some features in the 300-s darks on the right hand side of the detector, and the readout noise has increased for detectors 3 and 4. Under investigation. See here for an example of detector 4 300-s dark taken on March 25th 2011.
    • Mar 20 2011 UTC Time: 17:11:59 there was an earthquake that shifted the prism, hence moving the wavlength zero-point for some of the calibrations. The situation was recovered on March 21st and no science data were affected.
    • Mar 08 to 16th 2011. An intervention on CRIRES was performed on one of the closed cycle coolers. CRIRES back in operations on March 16th.
    • Mar 01, 2011. CRIRES user manual for P88 phase 1 released.
    • Feb 18, 2011. An intervention is planned in early March 2011 for maintenance of the closed cycle coolers.
    • Feb 18, 2011. A SLIT UPGRADE of CRIRES is planned at the start of P88. We hope to move to Two fixed slits of 0.2 and 0.4 arcsecond widths. The idea is to eliminate variations of up to 30 percent in the slit width reproducability.
    • Feb 18, 2011. A comparison of standard stars with UVES/CRIRES has been performed. Since the UVES MIT CCD upgrade was undertaken, UVES is more sensitive in the Red. The crossover point is now at around 1 micron (CRIRES more sensitive beyond that). More details will be available in the P88 user manual.
    • Dec 25, 2010. Update to CRIRES user manual for phase 2.
    • Nov 27, 2010. CRIRES back in operations.
    • Nov 26, 2010. The warm part of CRIRES had to be dismounted on Nov 13 due to M1 and M3 recoating. The instrument should be back soon.
    • Sept 07, 2010. CRIRES is back in operations. The X-position of the slit on the slit viewer detector has changed from 532 to 568 pixels that means that the field of view to the right of the slit has decreased by about 2 arcseconds. The allowed deltaX range is now -17.5" and 16.5". The slit is parallel to 0.02 arcseconds for a 10 arcsecond throw and 0.04 arcseconds for a 20 arcsecond throw. User manual updated on 16-Sept-2010 to reflect the changes above.
    • Aug 22, 2010. CRIRES is out of service starting August 22nd whilst it undergoes another intervention. News will be posted when the instrument is available again.
    • Aug 21, 2010. Problems with service mode CRIRES data are noted in the CRIRES SM pages.
    • Jul 16, 2010. After the current intervention there is a problem with the alignment of the entrance and intermediate slit. This means that likely only data from detector 2 and 3 will be useable. Under investigation but likely that another intervention will be required in early August. The slit is now parallel to better than 10 percent over a throw of 20 arcseconds. The flatfields no longer show gradients in the cross dispersion.
    • Jul 14, 2010: Another intervention on CRIRES is in progress. News to be posted soon.
    • May 29, 2010: CRIRES is back in operations but with PROBLEMS. In particular the entrance slit is no longer parallel i.e. the width changes along its length. For a 10 arcsecond throw the difference in resolution in the two throw positions is around 15 per cent, getting worse for longer throws. The slit has been set at 0.2 arcseconds in width. PIs will be informed of the situation by USD. Another intervention is likely to occur in mid-July to fix this problem.
    • May 25, 2010: CRIRES started cooling down on May 24th after intervention.
    • May 10, 2010: There is a problem with the cryogenic cooling system on CRIRES which means that the instrument is currently not operational. Efforts are ongoing to fix the problem as soon as possible.
    • Apr 10, 2010: Please remember that slit widths of more than 0.4 arcseconds should generally be avoided due to contamination from other orders. The entrance slit can show variability of up to 30 percent although generally it should be within 10 percent due to checks made at the start of every night.
    • Feb 28, 2010: CRIRES User Manual updated for P86 Phase 1. Only minor upates. The main improvement for P86 should be the implementation of metrology fibres for STANDARD SETTINGS ONLY that will improve the wavelength stability of the instrument.
    • December 25, 2009: CRIRES User Manual updated for P85 Phase 2.
    • December 20, 2009: Intervention on CRIRES to (1) Fix the leak in the entrance window that was causing contamination and (2) To focus the metrology fibres that will improve the wavelength stability of the instrument when fully implemented. Due to the intervention the position of lines on the grating shifted by between 10 and 30 pixels in the wavelength direction and 5 pixels in the cross-dispersion direction.
    • September 1, 2009: A table giving the NDSAMPLES for each allowed DIT in FowlerNSamp is made available for non-windowed readout mode only.
    • August 31, 2009: CRIRES User Manual updated for P85 Phase 1
    • August 1, 2009: New version of the pipeline (1.11.0)
    • July 3, 2009: Maps of S/N/pixel of flat-fields are available: see Tools
    • July 1, 2009: CRIRES User Manual updated for P84 Phase 2
    • July 1, 2009: Update of the Tools, Instrument Operation Team pages
    • March 5, 2008: CRIRES User Manual updated for P84 Phase 1
    • December 19, 2008: CRIRES User Manual updated for P83 Phase 2
    • November 28, 2008
      • Upgraded versions of the instrument control and observation softwares were implemented. They are more stable than the previous version. They include a proper implementation of corrections for differential refraction effect, although it is still incomplete. The complete project should be finished by March 2009.
      • After a medium risk earthquake on Oct 29, 2008, the grating encoder started to show a noisy behavior. Subsequent investigations indicate that the problem originates inside the vessel: therefore, it cannot be solved before the January 2009 intervention. The spectral resolution is not affected. However, the wavelength setting is affected with a precision reduced to +/- 5 pixels.
      • The MACAO safety shutter failed on Nov 18, 2008. Its replacement unfortunately led to a mis-alignment of the fibre bundle. After a week of efforts, its re-alignment was completed on Nov 27.
      • The 'noise' affecting the PRISM encoder has been reduced to a satisfactory value. Complete elimination shall wait for the next intervention in January 2009.
    • August 29, 2008: CRIRES User Manual updated for P83 Phase 1
    • August 13, 2008: Update on the wavelength calibration using the ThAr: (see History)
    • June 25, 2008: CRIRES User Manual updated for P82 Phase 2; good news regarding the vignetting of the entrance slit (see History)
    • May 28, 2008: new version of the CRIRES pipeline (v1.7.0), required to reduce data obtained between April and June 2008
    • May 28, 2008: following the April 2008 intervention, CRIRES entrance slit shows important vignetting (see History)
    • May 24, 2008: CRIRES WWW pages adapted to new ESO look & feel style
    • March 03, 2008: CRIRES User Manual updated for P82 Phase 1
    • December 28, 2007: CRIRES User Manual updated for P81 Phase 2
    • November 8, 2007: the CRIRES pipeline is now available for download
    • September 2, 2007: CRIRES User Manual and web pages updated for P81 Phase 1
    • June 21, 2007: CRIRES User Manual updated for P80 Phase 2
    • June 5, 2007: new link to useful calibration tables for a number of molecules
    • March 20, 2007: Section 15 of the User Manual has been updated with corrected values of the wavelength coverage for settings in the J band. See the Manuals page
    • March 20, 2007: An important error regarding the wavelength coverage of orders 59 to 41, inclusive has been reported. See the Manuals page
    • March 12, 2007: User manual updated: main change concerns the use of N2O gas cell during P80
    • March 05, 2007: Overview and instrument page updated
    • March 05, 2007: CRIRES User Manual updated for P80 Phase 1: improved offered sensitivities; IMPORTANT: users should use the updated values of the overheads as they are different from the ones given in the Call for Proposals; changes are mainly relevant for OBs with large number of settings
    • December 26, 2006: CRIRES User Manual for P79 Phase 2 updated, correcting minor editorial details
    • December 20, 2006: CRIRES User Manual for P79 Phase 2 is now available