SINFONI: a near-infrared AO-assisted integral field spectrometer for the VLT

Abstract

SINFONI, the SINgle Faint Object Near-IR Investigation, is an instrument for the very large telescope, designed to provide spectroscopy at the telescope diffraction limit in the near-IR. This unique capability is achieved by combining two state-of-the-art developments, an integral field spectrometer and a curvature sensor based adaptive optics system. SINFONI is a collaborative effort by the Max-Planck- Institut fuer extraterrsetrische Physik and the European Southern Observatory.