In August 2000 a new HAWAII detector has been mounted in Omega-prime. The performance of the new detector is substantially better than before. Noise is lower, full well capacity has increased (mainly by some modifications to the electronics), all four quadrants behave similar, frame to frame stability is much more constant.

Extensive tests during 2000 have shown that it is technically extremely difficult and very demanding on atmospheric conditions to use a laser artificial star for wave front sensing. It was therefore decided to decommission the laser part of the ALFA instrument for the time being. Adaptive optics with a natural reference star is continued to be offered to visiting astronomers without restriction.