Category Archives: Development

The forth near infrared camera was installed.

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Time flies; it’s already a half of 2024 was over. In this article we are goin to report that we have achieved a milestone in the middle of June. The PFS instrument obtains about 2400 spectra using 4 spectrograph modules. Each module has three cameras; blue, red and near-infrared. Among of them, the near-infrared cameras have been developed at Johns… Read more »

What PFS is doing recently?

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It’s been a while since the last article, so we are going to report our activities last month. We all, both scientists and developers, were pretty busy last month. Firstly, we had two engineering observations in May 2024.The PFS project is in the final phase of development, aiming to start the scientific operation in the 2025A semester (i.e., February 2025),… Read more »

To improve the instrument performance 2

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Before the engineering observation in March 2024, we PFS project carried out two major modification works at Subaru telescope. One of them is realignment of Metrology Camera System. “Metrology Camera System (MCS)” is the instrument installed on Cassegrain focus of Subaru telescope, and namely measures the fibers position on the prime focus plane. In fact, there was an accident during… Read more »

Engineering observation was carried out

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We had an engineering observation from 8th to 17th March 2024, several month after the previous observation. We carried out the on-telescope test in December 2023 to take calibration data, but this was the first time to “observe” celestial objects with four Spectrograph Modules. In fact, there were a couple major updates before this engineering observation, and we’ll show them… 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 »

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 »