New era of spectroscopy: SINFONI NIR integral field spectroscopy at the diffraction limit of an 8-m telescope

SINFONI, the SINgle Faint Object Near-IR Investigation, is an instrument for the very large telescope (VLT), which will start its operation mid 2002 and allow for the first time near IR integral field spectroscopy at the diffraction limit of an 8-m telescope. SINFONI is the combination of two state-of-the-art instruments, the integral field spectrometer SPIFFI, built by the Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik, and the adaptive optics system MACAO, built by the ESO. It will allow a unique type of observations by delivering simultaneously high spatial resolution and a moderate spectral resolution, where the higher spectral resolution mode will allow for software OH suppression. This opens new prospects for astronomy.