Extremely Large Telescope

Abstract:

The Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS) consists of a baseline build of 150 identical spectrographs (arrayed as 75 units, each with a pair of spectrographs) fed by 33,600 fibers, each 1.5 arcsec diameter, deployed over the 22 arcminute field of the upgraded 10 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). The goal is to deploy 82 units. VIRUS has a fixed bandpass of 350-550 nm and resolving power R∼700. VIRUS is the first example of industrial-scale replication applied to optical astronomy and is capable of spectral surveys of large areas of sky. This approach, in which a relatively simple, inexpensive, unit spectrograph is copied in large numbers, offers significant savings of engineering effort, cost, and schedule when compared to traditional instruments. The main motivator for VIRUS is to map the evolution of dark energy for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX‡) using 0.8M Lyman-α emitting galaxies as tracers. The full VIRUS array is due to be deployed by early 2014 and will provide a powerful new facility instrument for the HET, well suited to the survey niche of the telescope. VIRUS and HET will open up wide-field surveys of the emission-line universe for the first time. We present the production design and current status of VIRUS. © 2012 SPIE.

Abstract:

We present the preliminary design of the WEAVE next generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), principally targeting optical ground-based follow up of upcoming ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE is a multi-object and multi-IFU facility utilizing a new 2 degree prime focus field of view at the WHT, with a buffered pick and place positioner system hosting 1000 multi-object (MOS) fibres or up to 30 integral field units for each observation. The fibres are fed to a single spectrograph, with a pair of 8k(spectral) x 6k (spatial) pixel cameras, located within the WHT GHRIL enclosure on the telescope Nasmyth platform, supporting observations at R-5000 over the full 370-1000nm wavelength range in a single exposure, or a high resolution mode with limited coverage in each arm at R-20000. © 2012 SPIE.

Abstract:

This is an addendum to the paper by Cappellari (2008, MNRAS, 390, 71), which presented a simple and efficient method to model the stellar kinematics of axisymmetric stellar systems. The technique reproduces well the integral-field kinematics of real galaxies. It allows for orbital anisotropy (three-integral distribution function), multiple kinematic components, supermassive black holes and dark matter. The paper described the derivation of the projected second moments and we provided a reference software implementation. However only the line-of-sight component was given in the paper. For completeness we provide here all the six projected second moments, including radial velocities and proper motions. We present a test against realistic N-body galaxy simulations.