Prof. Niranjan Thatte

Abstract:

HARMONI is the first light visible and near-infrared (NIR) integral field spectrograph for the Extremely Large Telescope(ELT). The HARMONI spectrograph will have four near-infrared cameras and two visible, both with seven lenses of various materials and diameters ranging from 286 to 152 mm. The lens mounts design has been optimized for each lens material to compensate for thermal stresses and maintain lens alignment at the operational temperature of 130 K. We discuss their design and mounting concept, as well as assembly and verification steps. We show initial results from two prototypes and outline improvements in the mounting procedures to reach tighter lens alignments. To conclude, we present a description of our future work to measure the decentering of the lenses when cooled down and settled.