As these images demonstrate, the performance of the second VLT Unit Telescope is steadily improving and it may not be too long before its optical quality will approach that of the first. They reflect the current status of the optical, electronic and mechanical systems, still in the process of being tuned. As expected, the experience gained from ANTU last year has turned out to be invaluable and has allowed good progress during this extremely delicate process. The excellent image quality is 0.38 arcsec , demonstrating a good optical and mechanical state of the telescope, already at this early stage of the commissioning phase. The field measures about 90 x 90 arcsec 2 .
North is up and East is left.
The image quality is 0.7 arcsec and the field is 90 x 90 arcsec 2 . The image quality is 0.75 arcsec and the field is 90 x 90 arcsec 2 . The image quality is 0.7 arcsec and the field is 90 x 90 arcsec 2 . The Test Camera with which the astronomical images above were made, is positioned at the Cassegrain focus, inside this mirror cell. Last year, about 270 observing proposals competed about the first, precious observing time at Europe's largest optical telescope and more than 100 of these were accommodated within the six-month period until the end of September 1999.