AUSTRALIS Phase A Study
Funded under the International Collaboration Project of the
MNRF Program
MNRF Program
Proposers: K Taylor and M Colless
The AUSTRALIS project involves the design and procurement of an optical/near-infrared, multi-fibre, spectrograph for the European Southern Observatory (ESO). In particular, the original proposal was for a spectrograph destined for the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), a multi-telescope array, based on four 8 m units, currently under construction at Cerro Paranal in northern Chile. The underlying philosophy is to provide, through the use of multiple optical fibre light guides, a spectrograph able to observe many objects simultaneously with a wavelength resolution sufficient to resolve the internal kinematics of very distant galaxies. The main objectives of the Phase A study, as initially proposed, were to develop the original concept design (as detailed in the AUSTRALIS Concept Study) into a full optical, mechanical, electronic and software specification.
However, very early in the Phase A project, ESO requested the AUSTRALIS consortium to provide a costed proposal for the procurement of the fibre positioner for AUSTRALIS. This represented a significant subset of the Phase A study and an opportunity to incorporate the AUSTRALIS spectrograph into ESO's future VLT instrumentation plans; as a result, a re-scheduling of the study was required. Subsequent to the MNRF submission, the AUSTRALIS positioner (now known as OzPoz) is being procured under a separate contract to ESO while, in recognition of the fact that the original Phase A study included substantial work on the positioner, half of its funds were donated to the positioner procurement contract and the study de-scoped and extended to concentrate on the critical engineering design issues surrounding the spectrograph itself.
To date, progress on the Phase A study includes the successful completion of the positioner design study, a continuing investigation into the difficult area of microlensed integral fibre unit (IFU) design, and a detailed evaluation of spectrograph design. The procurement of efficient, state-of-the-art, microlenses requires an iterative design process to arrive at the best performance/cost compromise. This analysis is complete and the proposers are in the procurement phase prior to prototyping, with manufacture and test scheduled for quarter 3, 1998.
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This page is maintained by Michelle Storey
Last update by Michelle Storey. 4/11/98
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