Author Archives: PFS Project

PFS on-line collaboration meeting

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We had a collaboration meeting using the Zoom online meeting system on 16 and 17 September 2020. About 160 people participated in the meeting: colleagues from the PFS participant institutions, as well as Japanese researchers who are interested in the PF project. Since the PFS participant institutions locate in 6 countries (in 8 time zone), some had the meeting late… Read more »

Calibration lamp system was delivered to Taiwan

The PFS project researches astronomical objects taking their spectra. Spectrograph modules take spectral images of our targets, and “(Wavelength) calibration lamp” is essential to process the raw images and get the spectra. Recently, Princeton University completed the assembly and test of the calibration lamp system, and shipped it to Taiwan. PFS develops 4 spectrograph modules to obtain about 2400 spectra… Read more »

Optics for the 3rd Spectrograph Module were delivered.

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We have a news from Marseilles in France in the middle of summer. PFS uses 4 identical spectrograph modules to obtain about 2400 spectra from astronomical objects. Development of the spectrograph modules are led by Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), and production of the optical systems such as lenses are going on by their partner, Winlight.Two sets of the PFS… Read more »

Obituary: Olivier Le Fèvre

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Prof. Olivier Le Fèvre passed away on June 25, 2020 at the age of 59. He had been fighting brain cancer with courage and lucidity for the past 2 and a half years. Prof. Le Fèvre was the key person to get the PFS project off the ground, bringing Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille as a full partner of the collaboration…. Read more »

All fiber positioner modules were shipped

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It was April 2018 that the first fiber module was shipped from Caltech, US to Taiwan. Two years later, now we have completed delivering all the modules to Taiwan. PFS is an instrument to observe celestial objects using optical fibers. Actuators nicknamed “Cobras” are used to position fibers to the targets, and “Cobra” modules consisting of the “Cobras” and fibers… Read more »

Assemble of the first Near-Infrared Camera Unit

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The topic of this post is the development of the Near-Infrared Camera Units at Johns Hopkins University. Each Spectrograph module of the PFS project equips three cameras — visible-blue, visible-red and near-infrared — to take spectra whose wavelength ranges from 380 nm to 1260 nm with a single shot. Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and Princeton University (PU) in the United… Read more »

News about Integration Activity of Prime Focus Instrument

PFS instruments are being developed all over the world. In this post, we are featuring the integration activities of Prime Focus Instrument in Taiwan. Prime Focus Instrument (PFI) is the instrument literally installed to the prime focus of the Subaru Telescope, and consists of fiber positioner modules, guiding cameras and so on. Each fiber is attached with 2-axis actuator named… Read more »

News from Integration Work of Fiber Cable

A few month ago, we reported that we had entered on the second phase of the fiber cable integration (see this). This time we are going to show news since then. PFS catches the light of stars and galaxies by fibers installed on the prime focal plane at the top of Subaru Telescope, and obtains their spectra with the spectrograph… Read more »

11th PFS collaboration meeting at Caltech

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The annual PFS collaboration meeting was held from 9 to 13 December 2019 at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Here is a brief report by a young researcher who participated in the meeting. The collaboration meeting is a good opportunity for us to exchange scientific ideas. It is important to learn the status of instrumentation and scientific goals/objectives from other… Read more »

The first Spectrograph Module was re-assembled at Subaru Telescope

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Earlier we reported that one of the PFS instruments, the first Spectrograph Module was shipped to Hawaii Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in Hawaii (see here). More recently, the module has been transported to Subaru Telescope at the summit of Maunakea, and re-assembled there. PFS Spectrograph Module consists of ten and several assemblies such as camera units, grating assemblies,… Read more »