First diffraction limited images at VLT with NAOS and CONICA

摘要

In November 2001, the VLT has been equipped for the first time with an adaptive optics system, NAOS. NAOS has been designed to provide good image quality over a wide range of conditions, allowing thus a large variety of astrophysical programmes, from Solar Sytem to extragalactic studies. NAOS feeds a camera CONICA which provides imaging, coronagraphic, spectroscopic and polarimetric capabilities between 1 and 5 microns. NAOS and CONICA (hereafter NACO) have been commissioned over the past months. We present in this paper the first images recorded by NACO during the commissioning period, illustrating the capabilities of this new instrument.