MAVIS (MCAO-Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph) successfully passed its preliminary design review at the end of March. MAVIS is intended to be installed at the Nasmyth A focus of the VLT UT4 in 2030 (replacing Hawk-I/GRAAL), and is made of two main parts: an Adaptive Optics (AO) system that cancels the image blurring induced by atmospheric turbulence, and its post focal instrumentation, an imager and an IFU spectrograph, both covering the visible part of the light spectrum.
VLT MAVIS Instrument Passes Preliminary Design Review
Published: 10 May 2023
MAVIS will take advantage of the superb performance of the Adaptive Optics Facility (powerful Laser Guide Stars and Deformable Secondary Mirror). MAVIS will push AO toward the visible and, using the Multi-Conjugate AO concept, will provide a 30”x30” wide field of view at an angular resolution close to the diffraction limit of the 8-m aperture telescope. This is unprecedented in ground-based instrumentation.
More information is available at the instrument webpages.