Category Archives: Development

The first on-telescope test integrating all the delivered subsystems

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We PFS project met a big milestone in September 2021. We finally carried out on-telescope test integrating the subsystems Prime Focus Instrument, Spectrograph Module 1, Fiber Cable System 1, and Metrology Camera System!! PFS instrument consists of four major subsystems: Prime Focus Instrument (PFI) on the prime focus of Subaru Telescope, Metrology Camera System (MCS) on Cassegrain Focus, four identical… Read more »

News about activities of Spectrograph integration

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At Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), integration of the second and the third Spectrograph Modules is on-going. We are talking about the recent activities in this post. PFS project is developing four spectrograph modules to observe about 2400 objects simultaneously. We designed the system for each module to evenly cover the field of view on the telescope’s prime focal plane… Read more »

Prime Focus Instrument has arrived at Subaru Telescope

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Time flies and a half of 2021 has already passed. Earlier this year, the first fiber cable unit and the miniature telescope for night sky study “SuNSS” was installed on Subaru telescope. In this article, we report a big news of our project. Finally the Prime Focus Instrument has delivered from Taiwan to Subaru Telescope in June 2021!! Prime Focus… Read more »

PFS spectrograph observed sky spectra!

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As shown in the last article, the first fiber cable unit was installed on the Subaru telescope. In fact, in the same period, we have installed another instrument — a miniature telescope called “SuNSS” to study sky spectra at Mt. Maunakea. Since night-sky emission originates from the atmosphere, any spectra observed by ground-based telescopes contain sky component as a noise…. Read more »

The first fiber cable unit has been installed on Subaru telescope

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We PFS project passed two big milestones recently. We will talk about them in this post and the next. The fist milestone is the first fiber cable unit, which was delivered to Hawaii Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in the end of the last year, has been installed on Subaru telescope at last! We observe about 2400 spectra of… Read more »

The first fiber cable unit has arrived in Hawaii!

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Time flies — there are only a few days left in 2020. The last post of this year is about a very exciting news! The first unit of the fiber cable system has been delivered from Laboratório Nacional de Astrofísica (LNA), Brazil, to Hawaii Observatory of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) in Hawaii, the USA. PFS is the fiber… Read more »

Final assembly of the fiber cables in the Prime Focus Instrument is progressing

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Having only a month or so left in 2020, the integration of the Prime Focus Instrument (PFS) is progressing in Taiwan. The integration and test of the PFI system are being carried out by ASIAA (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics) and their partner institute ASRD of CSIST (Aeronautical Systems Research Division of Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology). Back in… Read more »

SpS development is progressing

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This post shows recent activities for the development of the PFS Spectrograph modules. PFS project develops 4 identical Spectrograph Modules to obtain 2400 spectra in a singe exposure. Integration of the second and third Spectrograph Modules are on-going at Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) in France. As shown in the previous post, almost all units and assemblies had been delivered… Read more »

Calibration lamp system was delivered to Taiwan

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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 »