Author Archives: PFS Project

Metrology Camera is at Subaru Telescope Now!

PFS Project 2018-05-09 Comments Off

About one month has passed since Metrology Camera was shipped from Taiwan. Now it has arrived at Subaru Telescope at Maunakea in Hawaii. After shipping, from 23 April 2018, members from Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) visited to Hawaii Observatory of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan for final development. At Hilo base, ASIAA inspected Metrology Camera and… Read more »

Updates about Spectrograph Development

PFS Project 2018-05-01 No Comments

It has been about 3 months since the first blue camera cryostat was shipped to France. In this post, we are showing the updates on development of the Spectrograph systems. At Laboratorie d’Astorophysique de Marseille (LAM), we finished the performance test using only a red camera unit, and started fully integrating the first spectrograph module (called SM1). We have already… Read more »

Metrology Camera left Taiwan to Hawaii

PFS Project 2018-04-17 Comments Off

One of the PFS instrument “Metrology Camera” was finally shipped from Taiwan to Hawaii!! Metrology Camera is an instrument used to measure the fibers position while we configure fibers to target objects. Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) in Taiwan has the responsibility for Metrology Camera development, and they tested its performances before shipping in the last a… Read more »

Database prototype was opened to PFS collaboration

PFS Project 2018-02-20 No Comments

Written by Masayuki Tanaka (NAOJ) PFS survey is going to collect a huge amount of data. Thanks to the high multiplexity with 2400 fibers, we are going to collect as many as 67,000 spectra in a single night according to the current survey plan. In addition, we will measure a variety of physical parameters — redshifts of galaxies, strengths of emission and absorption… Read more »

Updates on Development of Metrology Camera System

PFS Project 2018-02-01 Comments Off

“Metrology Camera System” is one of the PFS instrument subsystems under development by ASIAA (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan). This is a small telescope system installed onto the Cassegrain Focus at the bottom of the Subaru telescope to look up the Prime focus, take the image of approximately 2400 back-illuminated fiber spots in one exposure with the large… Read more »

The 1st blue camera cryostat was delivered in Marseille

PFS Project 2018-01-19 No Comments

In January 2018, the visible-blue camera cryostat of the first spectrograph module was shipped from Johns Hopkins University (JHU, the United States of America) to Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM, France). Visible-blue camera at Johns Hopkins University PFS are developing the four identical spectrograph modules, each of which has three channels with visible-blue, visible-red and near-infrared camera units, in order to… Read more »

Joint work for shipping the first positioner module

PFS Project 2017-12-26 No Comments

At California Institute of Technology (Caltech, USA), the fiber positioners “Cobra” are assembled into a module (so-called “Cobra module”) by the teams from Caltech, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Brazil in collaboration. As highlighted in the previous article, the first Cobra module has been assembled, tested and calibrated, so will be shipped soon to Taiwan, where the Cobra modules will… Read more »

9th PFS Collaboration Meeting

PFS Project 2017-12-05 No Comments

From 27 November to 1 December 2017 was held the 9th PFS collaboration meeting at Kavli IPMU, the University of Tokyo, in Kashiwa city, Japan. More and more participants have joined to the meeting, and this year about 130 collaborators gathered to the meeting. On 28 and 29 November, we had the joint sessions and shared the project updates. The… Read more »

The first fiber positioner module was assembled

PFS Project 2017-10-25 No Comments

At the laboratory of California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, the fiber positioner modules are being assembled by Caltech, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (USA), and Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofisica (Brazil). PFS will develop 42 fiber modules for the observation, and the spare modules. We have been assembling the first module, testing it to control the 57 actuators “Cobra” in the… Read more »

The first things installed at the Subaru telescope is …

PFS Project 2017-10-17 No Comments

The subsystems of the PFS instrument are being developed at various institutes. These subsystems will be delivered to the Subaru telescope in Hawaii from what will be finished integration and test at the laboratory. It is already one year before the first subsystem will be delivered to the Subaru telescope, and start its integration and test there. To operate the… Read more »