AMBER, the Astronomical Multi-Beam Recombiner, [1] [2] is an instrument mounted on the Very Large Telescope (VLT), combining the light of the three Unit Telescopes in the near-infrared of the VLT-Interferometer (VLTI). It is at the source of a considerable number of publications [3] in the field of optical long-baseline interferometry.
It combines three out of the four telescopes of the VLTI, through a spectrograph, making it a unique instrument, combining spectroscopy and interferometry. These properties, and the fact that AMBER is an open-community instrument, made it a successful instrument. It can be compared to its fellow in the mid-infrared, the MIDI instrument in terms of the number of publications.
Highlights from the AMBER instrument [4] include the first detection of a Keplerian-rotating disk around a Be star, [5] the discovery of disks around evolved stars, [6] [7] the characterization of the disks of young stars, [8] [9] the observations of novae, [10] the sharpest images of evolved stars [11] [12] [13] [14] and the characterization of the central dusty torus of active galactic nuclei. [15] As of the end of 2017, 150 refereed papers had been published using AMBER data. [16]
AMBER, the Astronomical Multi-Beam Recombiner, [1] [2] is an instrument mounted on the Very Large Telescope (VLT), combining the light of the three Unit Telescopes in the near-infrared of the VLT-Interferometer (VLTI). It is at the source of a considerable number of publications [3] in the field of optical long-baseline interferometry.
It combines three out of the four telescopes of the VLTI, through a spectrograph, making it a unique instrument, combining spectroscopy and interferometry. These properties, and the fact that AMBER is an open-community instrument, made it a successful instrument. It can be compared to its fellow in the mid-infrared, the MIDI instrument in terms of the number of publications.
Highlights from the AMBER instrument [4] include the first detection of a Keplerian-rotating disk around a Be star, [5] the discovery of disks around evolved stars, [6] [7] the characterization of the disks of young stars, [8] [9] the observations of novae, [10] the sharpest images of evolved stars [11] [12] [13] [14] and the characterization of the central dusty torus of active galactic nuclei. [15] As of the end of 2017, 150 refereed papers had been published using AMBER data. [16]