Prof. Takada won Hayashi Chushiro Prize

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Prof. Masahiro Takada (Kavli IPMU), the PFS Primary Scientist, won Hayashi Chushiro Prize in 2023. Hayashi Chushiro Prize of Astronomical Society of Japan (ASJ) was established based on donation by Dr. Chushiro Hayashi (emeritus professor of Kyoto University at that time), when he was awarded for the 11th Kyoto Prize in 1995 [1]. He donated to ASJ encouraging younger researchers… Read more »

On-telescope test with four Spectrograph

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About one month has already passed since (western) new year. PFS project is keeping the efforts on development in this year to complete the instrument and start scientific operation. In the end of 2023, the four spectrograph modules were finally integrated at Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), except for one near-infrared camera. After it, we carried out… Read more »

The last two Spectrograph modules have come!

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We achieved a big milestone in November 2023. Finally, the four spectrograph modules have been installed at Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, in Hawaii!! PFS project has been developing four spectrograph modules to observe about 2400 spectra at the same time. The spectrograph modules are being developed by Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Princeton… Read more »

Make the instrument more robust to long-term operation

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Most of the PFS instruments have been delivered to Subaru Telescope on the top of Mt. Maunakea in Hawaii and been installed there. However, in order to run the instruments for the coming 10 years or even longer, we cannot simply say it’s done once delivered and assembled — it is essential to run the instruments stably for such a… Read more »

PFS science working group co-chair meeting at Tufts University

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The PFS project is in its final stage of hardware delivery and approaching such a critical phase as the start of scientific operation. Under this circumstance, a meeting of the science working groups took place at Tufts University near Boston, USA from August 30 to September 1, 2023. In this meeting, the representatives (co-chairs) from each working group shared the… Read more »

Engineering observation in July 2023

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About a half-month after the second near-infrared camera was integrated, we conducted the engineering observation late July 2023. The members from Kavli IPMU, Princeton University, Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA, Taiwan) and , National Astronomical Observatory of Japan joined the observations at Subaru telescope on the Maunakea summit, in the remote observation rooms, or via zoom. Following… Read more »

Two spectrograph modules are now equipped with full channels

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Development of spectrograph modules has been in progress to complete PFS instrument. Spectrograph modules are being developed by Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Princeton University, Brazilian consortium in collaboration with Bertin Winlight. Although there have been many issues found during integration and test, we the team has been discussing one by one and solve them, to complete… Read more »

Installation of the PFS fiber cable was completed!

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We achieved one milestone in early June 2023. The installation of all the fiber cables has been completed finally! Among the PFS instruments, the fiber cable system, which consists of about 2400 optical fibers, delivers the light from the prime focus of the Subaru telescope to the Spectrograph Modules. The fiber cables are assembled into four units, each of which… Read more »

We conducted Engineering Observation

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A few weeks after we integrated the first near infrared camera at the Subaru telescope, we carried out the engineering observation from 20 April to 2 May 2023. The observation took about two weeks. Over that long period, we conducted numerous tests and development. The most important achievement was that we succeeded in taking on-sky data using the near infrared… Read more »

The first Near-Infrared camera was installed at Subaru telescope

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A new milestone for PFS was reached in late March 2023 when the first Near-Infrared (NIR) camera was successfully delivered from Johns Hopkins University and installed at Subaru telescope. As its name suggests, this camera covers the NIR spectral band of the spectrographs (940-1260nm), in addition to the blue and red cameras. In total 4 NIR cameras will be delivered… Read more »