The AVES adaptive optics spectrograph for the VLT: status report

We report on the status of AVES, the Adaptive-optics Visual Echelle Spectrograph proposed for the secondary port of the Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System (NAOS) recently installed at the VLT. AVES is an intermediate resolution (R ≈ 16,000) high-efficiency fixed- format echelle spectrograph which operates in the spectral band 500 - 1,000 nm. In addition to a high intrinsic efficiency, comparable to that of ESI at Keck II, it takes advantage of the adaptive optics correction provided by NAOS to reduce the sky and detector contribution in background-limited observations of weak sources, thus allowing a further magnitude gain with respect to comparable non-adaptive optics spectrographs. Simulations show that the instrument will be capable of reaching a magnitude V = 22.5 at S/N > 10 in two hours, two magnitudes weaker than GIRAFFE at the same resolution and 3 magnitudes weaker than the higher resolution UVES spectrograph. Imaging and coronographic functions have also been implemented in the design. We present the results of the final design study and we dicuss the technical and operational issues related to its implementation at the VLT as a visitor instrument. We also discuss the possibility of using a scaled-up non-adaptive optics version of the same design as an element of a double- or triple-arm intermediate-resolution spectrograph for the VLT. Such an option looks attractive in the context of a high-efficiency large-bandwidth (320 - 1,500 nm) spectrograph ("fast-shooter") being considered by ESO as a 2nd-generation VLT instrument.