Heidy Moreno

FRIDA, the diffraction limited NIR imager and IFS for the Gran Telescopio Canarias: status report

FRIDA is a diffraction limited imager and integral field spectrometer that is being built for the Gran Telescopio Canarias. FRIDA has been designed and is being built as a collaborative project between institutions from México, Spain and the USA. In imaging mode FRIDA will provide scales of 0.010, 0.020 and 0.040 arcsec/pixel and in IFS mode spectral resolutions R ~ 1000, 4,500 and 30,000. FRIDA is starting systems integration and is scheduled to complete fully integrated system tests at the laboratory by the end of 2015 and be delivered to GTC shortly after. In this contribution we present a summary of its design, fabrication, current status and potential scientific applications.

OSIRIS tunable imager and spectrograph for the GTC: from design to commissioning

OSIRIS (Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy) was the optical Day One instrument for the 10.4m Spanish telescope GTC. It is installed at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos (La Palma, Spain). This instrument has been operational since March-2009 and covers from 360 to 1000 nm. OSIRIS observing modes include direct imaging with tunable and conventional filters, long slit and low resolution spectroscopy. OSIRIS wide field of view and high efficiency provide a powerful tool for the scientific exploitation of GTC. OSIRIS was developed by a Consortium formed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Instituto de Astronomía de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IA-UNAM). The latter was in charge of the optical design, the manufacture of the camera and collaboration in the assembly, integration and verification process. The IAC was responsible for the remaining design of the instrument and it was the project leader. The present paper considers the development of the instrument from its design to its present situation in which is in used by the scientific community.

EMIR at the GTC: results on the commissioning at the telescope

We report the results on the EMIR1 (Espectrógrafo Multiobjeto Infra-Rojo) performances after the commissioning period of the instrument at the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC). EMIR is one of the first common user instruments for the GTC, the 10 meter telescope operating at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain). EMIR is being built by a Consortium of Spanish and French institutes led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). EMIR is primarily designed to be operated as a MOS in the K band, but offers a wide range of observing modes, including imaging and spectroscopy, both long slit and multiobject, in the wavelength range 0.9 to 2.5 μm. The development and fabrication of EMIR is funded by GRANTECAN and the Plan Nacional de Astronomía y Astrofísica (National Plan for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spain). After an extensive and intensive period of system verification at the IAC, EMIR was shipped to the GTC on May 2016 for its integration at the Nasmyth platform. Once in the observatory, several tests were conducted to ensure the functionality of EMIR at the telescope, in particular that of the ECS (EMIR Control System) which has to be fully embedded into the GCS (GTC Control System) so as to become an integral part of it. During the commissioning, the main capabilities of EMIR and its combined operation with the GTC are tested and the ECS are modified to its final form. This contribution reports on the details of the EMIR operation at the GTC obtained so far, on the first commissioning period.

FRIDA: the software architecture to execute and coordinate observing sequences

The instrument FRIDA (inFRared Imager and Dissector for Adaptive optics) is an integral field spectrograph (near infrared) with imaging capability for being used at the Nasmyth B platform of the Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC), behind the Adaptive Optics (AO) system. FRIDA is the first GTC instrument to use the telescope AO system. FRIDA is a collaborative project between institutions from México, Spain and the USA. In image mode, FRIDA provides scales of 0.010, 0.020 and 0.040 arcsec/pixel and, in integral-field spectroscopy (IFS) mode, spectral resolutions R 1000, 4.500 and 30.000. FRIDA has a set of different mechanisms (such as the focal plane wheel, the filters and pupil wheels, the cameras wheel, the calibration unit, the grating carousel) that are controlled and coordinated by the FRIDA Instrument Library (IL). In this paper, we present the IL, which provides the implementation of a Device that represents the instrument FRIDA as a whole. More specifically, the IL implements the commands for setting-up and coordinating the different mechanisms of FRIDA for an observation. It moves the mechanisms, exposes the detector, and reduces and stores the data image. In addition, we also present the Observation Manager (OM) component, responsible for the execution of the science observing sequences in close coordination with the IL and GTC AO system.

Software architecture of the high-level control of FRIDA

The instrument FRIDA (inFRared Imager and Dissector for Adaptive optics) is an integral field spectrograph (near infrared) operating at the wavelength range of 0.9 to 2.5um with imaging capability for being used at the Nasmyth B platform of the Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC). FRIDA is a collaborative project led by the Instituto de Astronomía Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IA-UNAM, México) with the collaboration of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, Spain), Centro de Ingeniería y Desarrollo Industrial (CIDESI, México), the University of Florida (UF, USA), and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM, Spain). In imaging mode, FRIDA will provide scales of 0.010, 0.020 and 0.040 arcsec/pixel and, in IFS mode, spectral resolutions of R 1000, 4.500 and 30.000. FRIDA is the first GTC instrument to use the telescope Adaptive Optic (AO) system and it is rescheduled to be delivered to GTC shortly in 2020. Since FRIDA is a GTC instrument, the high-level control software of FRIDA is embedded within the distributed architecture of the System Control of GTC (GCS) and must fulfill the GCS software and hardware standards to control the telescope and the AO system. This paper shows an overview of the high-level control software components of FRIDA inside the GCS architecture. The main components are the Mechanisms Control System whose primary task is to control the mechanisms of FRIDA, the Data Acquisition System that interacts with the detector to take image, the Data Factory Agent whose task is to provide quality control for both engineering and scientific data, the Instrument Library component responsible for operating the devices associated to FRIDA and the Observation Manager component responsible for the execution of the observing sequences in close coordination with the GTC AO system.

EMIR electronics AIV and commisioning

EMIR is the NIR imager and multi-object spectrograph common user instrument for the GTC and it has recently passed its first light on sky. EMIR was built by a Consortium of Spanish and French institutes led by the IAC. EMIR has finished its AIV phase at IAC facilities and it is now in commissioning on sky at GTC telescope, having completed the first run. During previous cool downs the EMIR subsystems have been integrated in the instrument progressively for verifying its functionality and performance. In order to fulfil the requirements, prepare the instrument to be in the best conditions for installation in the telescope and to solve unexpected electronics drawbacks, some changes in the implementation have been accomplished during AIV. In this paper it is described the adjustments, modifications and lessons learned related to electronics along AIV stages and the commissioning in the GTC. This includes actions in different subsystems: Hawaii2 detector and its controller electronics, Detector translation Unit, Multi object slit, wheels for filters and grisms, automatisms, vacuum, cryogenics and general electronics.

Results of the verification of the NIR MOS EMIR

EMIR is one of the first common user instruments for the GTC, the 10 meter telescope operating at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain). EMIR is being built by a Consortium of Spanish and French institutes led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). EMIR is primarily designed to be operated as a MOS in the K band, but offers a wide range of observing modes, including imaging and spectroscopy, both long slit and multiobject, in the wavelength range 0.9 to 2.5 μm. This contribution reports on the results achieved so far during the verification phase at the IAC prior to its shipment to the GTC for being commissioned, which is due by mid 2015. After a long period of design and fabrication, EMIR finally entered into its integration phase by mid 2013. Soon after this, the verification phase at the IAC was initiated aimed at configuring and tuning the EMIR functions, mostly the instrument control system, which includes a sophisticated on line data reduction pipeline, and demonstrating the fulfillment of the top level requirements. We have designed an ambitious verification plan structured along the three kind of detectors at hand: the MUX and the engineering and scientific grade arrays. The EMIR subsystems are being integrated as they are needed for the purposes of the verification plan. In the first stage, using the MUX, the full optical system, but with a single dispersive element out of the three which form the EMIR suite, the two large wheels mounting the filters and the pseudo-grisms, plus the detector translation unit holding the MUX, were mounted. This stage was mainly devoted to learn about the capabilities of the instrument, define different settings for its basic operation modes and test the accuracy, repeatability and reliability of the mechanisms. In the second stage, using the engineering Hawaii2 FPA, the full set of pseudo-grisms and band filters are mounted, which means that the instrument is fully assembled except for the cold slit unit, a robotic reconfigurable multislit mask system capable of forming multislit pattern of 55 different slitlets in the EMIR focal plane. This paper will briefly describe the principal units and features of the EMIR instrument as the main results of the verification performed so far are discussed. The development and fabrication of EMIR is funded by GRANTECAN and the Plan Nacional de Astronomía y Astrofísica (National Plan for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Spain).

LIRIS (Long-Slit Intermediate Resolution Infrared Spectrograph)

LIRIS is a near-infrared (0.9–2.4 microns) intermediate resolution spectrograph (R = 1000 – 8000) with added capabilities for multi-object, imaging, coronography, and polarimetry. This instrument is now being constructed at the IAC, and upon complexion will be installed on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos (ORM, La Palma).