Scientific Objectives and Design Study of an Adaptive Optics Visual Echelle Spectrograph and Imager Coronograph (AVES-IMCO) for the NAOS Visitor Focus at the VLT

We present the scientific case for an Adaptive Optics Visual Echelle Spectrograph and Imager Coronograph (AVES-IMCO) that we propose as a visitor instrument for the secondary port of N AOS at the VLT. We show that such an instrument would be ideal for intermediate resolution (R=16,000) spectroscopy of faint sky-limited objects down to a magnitude of V=24.0 and will complement very effectively the near-IR imaging capabilities of CONICA. We present examples of science programmes that could be carried out with such an instrument and which cannot be addressed with existing VLT instruments. We also report on the result of a two-year design study of the instrument, with specific reference to its use as parallel instrument of NAOS.