PFS Science Working Group Meeting at Princeton University

The PFS Science Team has established a working group for each scientific objective and has vigorously discussed what interesting science cases are to exploit the strengths of PFS and how we optimize the survey observation accordingly (visit our past post and our official web site for more details about science objectives of the project). Based on these discussions we have developed an… Read more »

The prototype fiber cable has been installed on the telescope

We reported that Metrology Camera System had been installed to the Subaru Telescope for the test. MCS, however, is not the only instrument for PFS to have been installed to the telescope. The prototype fiber cable was also routed on the telescope to test the optical performance about a half year ago. The work was done a little long time… Read more »

Fiber slit test done for the first spectrograph module

      Comments Off on Fiber slit test done for the first spectrograph module

In this article, we are going to show recent news at Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM, France), where the first PFS Spectrograph module is being integrated. The assemblies for the first spectrograph module, such as the visible-blue and red cameras, optical bench and optical components have been delivered to LAM, as we showed in the previous article. Since then, the fiber… Read more »

After the arrival of metrology camera at the Subaru telescope…

      Comments Off on After the arrival of metrology camera at the Subaru telescope…

Since we published the article about the delivery of the Metrology Camera System (MCS) to Subaru Telescope in May this year, the member mainly from ASIAA (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan) have visited Subaru Telescope a few times, in order to finalize the integration and proceed the on-site tests. In this article, we are going to talk… Read more »

Presence of PFS at the SPIE conference

On June 10-15 2018, there was the SPIE conference titled “Astronomical Telescope and Instrumentation” at Austin Convention Center, in Austin, Texas, USA. This is a big international conference of astronomical instrumentation held every two years. Hundreds of presentations are given about a wide range of topics across ground-based facilities, space missions, and R&D studies. Like many other projects did so… Read more »

First “Cobra” Module is under the Test in Taiwan

      Comments Off on First “Cobra” Module is under the Test in Taiwan

To talk about this story, one should go back in time a little … Some time ago, the Metrology Camera System was shipped over the Pacific Ocean(from Taiwan to Hawaii).  In fact, around the same time, the first fiber positioner module was also shipped over the Pacific Ocean, from California to Taiwan. The PFS instrument catches the light from galaxies and… Read more »

Metrology Camera is at Subaru Telescope Now!

      Comments Off on Metrology Camera is at Subaru Telescope Now!

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

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

      Comments Off on Metrology Camera left Taiwan to Hawaii

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

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 »