APerture Synthesis in the MID-Infrared with the VLTI

Our objective is to develop of the mid-infrared imaging for the VLTI. Several areas of astrophysics will benefit of this new capability. APreS-MIDI comprises a beam combiner which interfaces with the current MIDI instrument. It thus constitutes an extension to the two-beam interferometric instrument MIDI by increasing the number of recombined beams up to four. This extension provides better uv-coverage (6 visibility points measured in one set) and moreover will allow measurement of 4 closure phase relations thus providing for the first time aperture synthesis images in the mid-infrared spectral regime.