Ukidna: the RAVE machine

Andrew McGrath, Will Saunders, Fred Watson, Stan Miziarski

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Anglo-Australian Observatory is currently designing a new fibre positioner for the UK Schmidt Telescope. The instrument will have 2250 fibres, positioned with sub-arcsecond accuracy across a six degree field of view, and will have a reconfiguration time of one minute. The instrument is to enable the RAVE survey of high precision abundances and velocities for up to 50 million stars. The design is largely adapted from the AAO's FMOS-Echidna fibre positioner for Subaru. New design challenges for Ukidna include the enormous number of fibres, the large focal surface, and the field curvature of the Schmidt telescope. These features are mostly shared with the expected needs of future prime-focus multi-fibre systems on 8-30m class telescopes. We present details and performance of the multi-actuator design.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGround-based Instrumentation for Astronomy
EditorsAlan Moorwood, Masanori Iye
PublisherSPIE
Pages353-363
Number of pages11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2004
Externally publishedYes
EventGround-based Instrumentation for Astronomy - Glasgow, United Kingdom
Duration: 21 Jun 200425 Jun 2004

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
PublisherSPIE
Volume5492
ISSN (Print)0277-786X

Conference

ConferenceGround-based Instrumentation for Astronomy
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityGlasgow
Period21/06/0425/06/04

Keywords

  • Fibre
  • Instrumentation
  • Multi-object spectroscopy
  • Positioner
  • Robotics
  • Surveys

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