VIRUS: a massively replicated integral-field spectrograph for HET

Gary J. Hill; Phillip J. MacQueen; Joseph R. Tufts; Andreas Kelz; Martin M. Roth; Werner Altmann; Pedro Segura; Karl Gebhardt; Povilas Palunas

doi:10.1117/12.672630

30 June 2006 VIRUS: a massively replicated integral-field spectrograph for HET

Gary J. Hill, Phillip J. MacQueen, Joseph R. Tufts, Andreas Kelz, Martin M. Roth, Werner Altmann, Pedro Segura, Karl Gebhardt, Povilas Palunas

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6269, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy; 62692J (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.672630
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

We present the design of, and the science drivers for, the Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS). This instrument is made up of 145 individually small and simple spectrographs, each fed by a fiber integral field unit. The total VIRUS-145 instrument covers ~30 sq. arcminutes per observation, providing integral field spectroscopy from 340 to 570 nm, simultaneously, of 35,670 spatial elements, each 1 sq. arcsecond on the sky. This corresponds to 15 million resolution elements per exposure. VIRUS-145 will be mounted on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and fed by a new wide-field corrector with 22 arcminutes diameter field of view. VIRUS represents a new approach to spectrograph design, offering the science multiplex advantage of huge sky coverage for an integral field spectrograph, coupled with the engineering multiplex advantage of >100 spectrographs making up a whole. VIRUS is designed for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) which will use baryonic acoustic oscillations imprinted on the large-scale distribution of Lyman-α emitting galaxies to provide unique constraints on the expansion history of the universe that can constrain the properties of dark energy.

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Gary J. Hill, Phillip J. MacQueen, Joseph R. Tufts, Andreas Kelz, Martin M. Roth, Werner Altmann, Pedro Segura, Karl Gebhardt, and Povilas Palunas "VIRUS: a massively replicated integral-field spectrograph for HET", Proc. SPIE 6269, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy, 62692J (30 June 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.672630

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