LDSS-2 is a wide-field, multiaperture spectrograph recently installed on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in La Palma. The spectrograph has high system throughput (including the telescope and atmosphere) of -20% at blaze. The field of view is 11.5 arcmin, allowing it to produce spectra of several tens of objects simultaneously at spectral resolutions up to AE = 1000. The multiaperture masks are of exceptional quality and can be designed and manufactured rapidly at the telescope to improve target-mask registration and observational flexibility. This paper describes the instrument, the mask manufacturing facility, and the observing procedures required to acquire the target fields. Finally it presents examples of data obtained during the first commissioning run.
The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration is building the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square degree, 520 Megapixel CCD camera which will be mounted on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at CTIO. DECam will be used to perform the 5000 sq. deg. Dark Energy Survey with 30% of the telescope time over a 5 year period. During the remainder of the time, and after the survey, DECam will be available as a community instrument. Construction of DECam is well underway. Integration and testing of the major system components has already begun at Fermilab and the collaborating institutions.
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