Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Instrumentation projects

At MPIA, we develop and build state-of-the-art astronomical instruments for large optical telescopes. Our focus is on near-infrared instrumentation. Here is a list of all projects with MPIA involvement - often as part of international consortia.

Ground-based instrumentation

Other Projects

3.5m telescope

ALFA

ALFA

Adaptive Optics with a Layer for Astronomy. Decommissioned. more

LAICA

LAICA

Large Area Imager for Calar Alto. more

MOSCA

MOSCA

Multi Object Spectrogragh for Calar Alto. more

OMEGA 2000

OMEGA 2000

Near Infrared Wide-Field Prime Focus Camera (2K detector). more

OMEGA CASS

OMEGA CASS

New Infrared Multimode Imager / Spectrometer for the Cassegrain Focus. Decomissioned. more

OMEGA PRIME

OMEGA PRIME

Near Infrared Wide-Field Prime Focus Camera. Decomissioned. more

PYRAMIR

PYRAMIR

Pyramid Infrared Wavefront Sensor. Decomissioned. more

TWIN

TWIN

Double spectrograph for the 3.5m telescope. more

2.2m telescope

AstraLux

AstraLux

Lucky Imaging for high spatial resolution. more

CAFOS

Calar Alto Faint Object Spectrograph. more

COUDÉ

COUDÉ

COUDÉ with MAGIC. Decomissioned. more

MAGIC

MAGIC

MPI for Astronomy general-purpose near-IR Camera. Decomissioned. more

1.23m telescope

CCD-Imager

Charge Coupled Device Imager for the 1.23m telescope more

ESO/La Silla

WFI

WFI

Wide field imager on the ESO/MPG 2.2m telescope. more

AstraLux Sur

AstraLux Sur

Lucky Imaging Camera at the 3.5m NTT. more

ESO/Paranal

ESPRI / PRIMA

ESPRI / PRIMA

Exoplanet Search with PRIma, the Differential Delay Line project for PRIMA (Phase-Referenced Imaging and Micro-arcsecond Astrometry). Differential delay lines installed in Sept. 2008, integration and tests of other subsystems in 2009, project on hold. more

MIDI

MIDI

Mid-infrared Interferometric Instrument for VLTI. Decomissioned. more

NACO

NACO

NAOS-CONICA adaptive optics system. more

PARSEC

PARSEC

The laser for the VLT. Decomissioned.

Large Binocular Telescope (LBT)

LBT-SW

LBT-SW

LBT Software Development. The MPIA contributed to this project until mid-2009. more

OVMS

Optical path difference and Vibration Monitoring System, a system of accelerometers distributed over the six telescope mirrors.

WISE Observatory

LAIWO

LAIWO

The Large Area Imager for the Wise Observatory. more

UKIRT

MAX

MAX

Mid infrared Array eXpandible. Decomissioned. more

ASTRA

ASTRA

ASTrometric and phase-Referenced Astronomy upgrade of the KECK NIR interferometer. Contact Scientist at MPIA: Jörg-Uwe Pott more

Other Interesting Articles

A blazing nearby super-Earth

A blazing nearby super-Earth

March 04, 2021

A hot super-Earth in our neighbourhood promises to be a suitable candidate to test rocky planet atmosphere models.

Surveys

Large Binocular Telescope

Large Binocular Telescope

Located on the summit of Mt. Graham, LBTO aspires to be the first of the ELTs and one of the leading 8-m class telescopes. Comprised of privately funded or national institutes and consortiums of universities, the goal of LBTO and its partners is to ensure that its community of users are receiving the highest-quality astronomical data.

Science Users

Information for Scientists - quick access to MPIA's observatories (LBT, MPG/ESO 2.2m, Calar Alto) instrumentation projects surveys, astronomical codes and databases.

MPG 2.2m telescope (LaSilla)

MPG 2.2m telescope (LaSilla)

The 2.2m-telescope on La Silla is a twin of the 2.2m-telescope on Calar Alto. A new agreement between MPIA and ESO is in place, and regulates access to the telescope during the October 1, 2019 - September 30, 2022, period. The GROND group can trigger up to 15% of the time with over-write status during this time.

Databases

HJPDOC contains references to the papers, data files and links to the Internet resources related to measurements and calculations of the optical constants in the wavelength interval from X-rays to radio domain. This publicly-available resource gives access to all the data produced in the context of the IllustrisTNG simulations, a suite of large volume, cosmological, gravo-magnetohydrodynamical simulations for the physics of galaxies, run with the moving-mesh code AREPO.

Codes and Software