Developments in fiber-positioning technology for the WEAVE instrument at the William Herschel Telescope

Ellen Schallig; Ian J. Lewis; James Gilbert; Gavin Dalton; Matthew Brock; Don Carlos Abrams; Kevin Middleton; J. Alfonso L. Aguerri; Piercarlo Bonifacio; Esperanza Carrasco; Scott C. Trager; Antonella Vallenari

doi:10.1117/12.2231626

9 August 2016 Developments in fiber-positioning technology for the WEAVE instrument at the William Herschel Telescope

Ellen Schallig, Ian J. Lewis, James Gilbert, Gavin Dalton, Matthew Brock, Don Carlos Abrams, Kevin Middleton, J. Alfonso L. Aguerri, Piercarlo Bonifacio, Esperanza Carrasco , Scott C. Trager, Antonella Vallenari

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI; 99087U (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2231626
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

WEAVE is the next-generation wide-field optical spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. It is a multi-object "pick-and-place" fibre-fed spectrograph with a 1000 fibre multiplex behind a new dedicated 2° prime focus corrector. The WEAVE positioner concept uses two robots working in tandem in order to reconfigure a fully populated field within the expected 1 hour dwell-time for the instrument (a good match between the required exposure times and the limit of validity for a given configuration due to the effects of differential refraction). In this paper we describe some of the final design decisions arising from the prototyping phase of the instrument design and provide an update on the current manufacturing status of the fibre positioner system.

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Ellen Schallig, Ian J. Lewis, James Gilbert, Gavin Dalton, Matthew Brock, Don Carlos Abrams, Kevin Middleton, J. Alfonso L. Aguerri, Piercarlo Bonifacio, Esperanza Carrasco , Scott C. Trager, and Antonella Vallenari "Developments in fiber-positioning technology for the WEAVE instrument at the William Herschel Telescope", Proc. SPIE 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 99087U (9 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2231626

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