The Wide Field Imager at the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope: first views with a 67-million-facette eye.

The basic capabilities of the Wide Field Imager (WFI) were described in a previous Messenger article (No. 93, p. 13; see also Table 1) which also includes a brief account of the contributions by the three participating institutes, namely ESO (Garching and La Silla), the Max-Planck- Institut für Astronomie in Heidelberg, and the Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte in Napoli. Table 1 summarises the most important characteristics. A first fairly complete version of the user manual is now offered via the WFI home page on the Web (URL: http://www.ls.eso.org/ lasilla/Telescopes/2p2T/E2p2M/WFI/WFI. html). The same page also provides access to some examples of pictures obtained with the instrument. An exposure time calculator is available under the URL: http://www.eso.org/observing/etc/