MIDI: controlling a two 8-m telescope Michelson interferometer for the thermal infrared
Abstract
MIDI is a two channel mid-infrared interferometric instrument developed for the Very Large Telescopes (VLT) Interferometer (VLTI). A control system with real-time capabilities integrates the various VLTI subsystems. Based on the VLTI control architecture and its interferometric extension, the VLTI control system, the MIDI control system will use synchronized VME computers running Tornado to control time critical subsystems such as delay lines and detector control electronics. Standard Unix workstations run high-level coordinating, monitoring, and data pre-processing tasks as well as graphical user interfaces. We describe the MIDI control architecture, the data flow and storage concept, and the self fringe tracking option. Furthermore we introduce a software package currently under development to simulate observations with MIDI.
- Publication:
-
Interferometry in Optical Astronomy
- Pub Date:
- July 2000
- DOI:
- 10.1117/12.390276
- Bibcode:
- 2000SPIE.4006...92H