MSE observatory: a revised and optimized astronomical facility

Bauman, Steven; Angers, Mathieu; Benedict, Tom; Crampton, D.; Flagey, Nicolas; Gedig, Mike; Green, Greg; Liu, Andy; Lo, David; Loewen, Nathan; McConnachie, Alan W.; Murowinski, Rick; Racine, R.; Salmon, Derrick; Stiemer, S. F.; Szeto, Kei; Wu, D. S.

doi:10.1117/12.2234311

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Mauron et al 2004;Deason et al 2012;Bochanski et al 2014;Cohen et al 2017). However, with upcoming wide-field photometric and spectroscopic facilities like the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST, Ivezić et al 2019), WFIRST (Spergel et al 2015), the Mauna Kea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE, Bauman et al 2016) and the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS, Takada et al 2014) on the horizon, exploring these extreme distances will be feasible in the near future.…”

Section: Starsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Edge of the Galaxy

Deason,

Fattahi,

Frenk

et al. 2020

Preprint

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We use cosmological simulations of isolated Milky Way-mass galaxies, as well as Local Group analogues, to define the "edge" -a caustic manifested in a drop in density or radial velocity -of Galactic-sized haloes, both in dark matter and in stars. In the dark matter, we typically identify two caustics: the outermost caustic located at ∼1.4r 200m corresponding to the "splashback" radius, and a second caustic located at ∼0.6r 200m which likely corresponds to the edge of the virialized material which has completed at least two pericentric passages. The splashback radius is ill defined in Local Group type environments where the halos of the two galaxies overlap. However, the second caustic is less affected by the presence of a companion, and seems a more natural definition for the boundary of the Milky Way halo. Curiously, the stellar distribution also has a clearly defined caustic, which, in most cases, coincides with the second caustic of the dark matter. This can be identified in both radial density and radial velocity profiles, and should be measurable in future observational programmes. Finally, we show that the second caustic can also be identified in the phase-space distribution of dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. Using the current dwarf galaxy population, we predict the edge of the Milky Way halo to be 292 ± 61 kpc.

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Section: Starsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Edge of the Galaxy

Deason,

Fattahi,

Frenk

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…Thus, to meet the overall sensitivity requirements of MSE requires partitioning appropriate values to the system throughput, injection efficiency and noise terms of Equation (6) given the adopted values of all the other parameters described in Table 1.…”

Section: Snr Formalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maximising the sensitivity of next generation multi-object spectroscopy: system budget development and design optimizations for the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer

McConnachie

Flagey²,

Szeto³

et al. 2018

Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy VIII

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MSE is an 11.25m telescope with a 1.5 sq.deg. field of view. It can simultaneously obtain 3249 spectra at R = 3000 from 360 − 1800nm, and 1083 spectra at R = 40000 in the optical. Absolutely critical to the scientific success of MSE is to efficiently access the faint Universe. Here, we describe the adopted systems engineering methodology to ensure MSE meets the challenging sensitivity requirements, and how these requirements are partitioned across three budgets, relating to the throughput, noise and fiber injection efficiency. We then describe how the sensitivity of MSE as a system was estimated at the end of Conceptual Design Phase, and how this information was used to revisit the system design in order to meet the sensitivity requirements while maintaining the overall architectural concept of the Observatory. Finally, we present the anticipated sensitivity performance of MSE and describe the key science that these capabilities will enable.

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“…Shifts in the wavelength centroid due to fiber tilt affecting the PSF are estimated to be very small. 6. Spectrograph thermal or mechanical changes.…”

Section: Detector Effects (Including Pixel-to-pixel Sensitivity Variamentioning

confidence: 99%

The science calibration challenges of next generation highly multiplexed optical spectroscopy: the case of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer

McConnachie¹,

Flagey²,

Hall

et al. 2018

Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems VII

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MSE is an 11.25m telescope with a 1.5 sq.deg. field of view. It can simultaneously obtain 3249 spectra at R = 3000 from 360−1800nm, and 1083 spectra at R = 40000 in the optical. The large field of view, large number of targets, as well as the use of more than 4000 optical fibres to transport the light from the focal plane to the spectrographs, means that precise and accurate science calibration is difficult but essential to obtaining the science goals. As a large aperture telescope focusing on the faint Universe, precision sky subtraction and spectrophotometry are especially important. Here, we discuss the science calibration requirements, and the adopted calibration strategy, including operational features and hardware, that will enable the successful scientific exploitation of the vast MSE dataset.

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MSE observatory: a revised and optimized astronomical facility

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

The Edge of the Galaxy

The Edge of the Galaxy

Maximising the sensitivity of next generation multi-object spectroscopy: system budget development and design optimizations for the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer

The science calibration challenges of next generation highly multiplexed optical spectroscopy: the case of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer

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