CRIRES+: Characterisation and Preparation During the Pandemic

In early 2020 the upgraded(1) CRIRES2 instrument, was installed at the VLT, however the onset of the global pandemic prevented the completion of some aspects of the installation while characterisation and commissioning had to be conducted with a remote connection from Europe. This resulted in a somewhat experimental, ad-hoc, approach to characterisation that required tight co-ordination between Paranal scientists and the instrument team in Europe. Moreover, with the observatory operating at minimal staffing, we had to find workarounds for some unfinished parts of the installation and adapt our characterisation, calibration and operations strategies accordingly. In particular, we discuss the adaptation made to the metrology strategy that illustrates well the pragmatic and ultimately successful approach adopted for getting CRIRES+ ready for operations.