Tag Archives: PFI

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 November 2021

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Two months after on-telescope test by integrating subsystems, we had another engineering observation (engineering run) on three nights in November 2021. In this article, we’re going to tell a story about our work around the engineering nights. Although we made big progresses in fiber configuration etc. during the September run, we also found a couple of major issues on Prime… 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

News about Integration Activity of Prime Focus Instrument

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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 »

5 “Cobra Modules” left from California to Taiwan

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Among the PFS instruments, “Cobra” modules position fibers to galaxies and stars on the Subaru Prime Focal plane. 42 Cobra modules, each of which consists of 57 fibers and its positioners, cover the entire PFS field of view without any inaccessible gaps as shown in Figure 1. Two groups are collaborating to assemble “Cobra Modules”; Brazilian team responsible for fibers,… Read more »

First “Cobra” Module is under the Test in Taiwan

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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 »

Joint work for shipping the first positioner module

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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 »