The MAVIS Image Simulator: predicting the astrometric performance of MAVIS

We present initial results from the Multi-conjugate Adaptive-optics Visible Imager-Spectrograph Image Simulator (MAVISIM) to explore the astrometric capabilities of the next generation instrument MAVIS. A core scientific and operational requirement of MAVIS will be to achieve highly accurate differential astrometry, with accuracies on the order that of the extremely large telescopes. To better understand the impact of known and anticipated astrometric error terms, we have created an initial astrometric budget which we present here to motivate the creation of MAVISIM. In this first version of MAVISIM we include three major astrometric error sources; point spread function (PSF) field variability due to high order aberrations, PSF degradation and field variability due to tip-tilt residual error, and field distortions due to non-common path aberrations in the AO module. An overview of MAVISIM is provided along with initial results from a study using MAVISIM to simulate an image of a Milky Way-like globular cluster. Astrometric accuracies are extracted using PSF-fitting photometry with encouraging results that suggest MAVIS will deliver accuracies of 150 µ as down to faint magnitudes.