Peter N. Cheimets

The FAST Spectrograph for the Tillinghast Telescope

ABSTRACT We describe a high‐throughput optical spectrograph that has been in operation at the Cassegrain focus of the 1.5‐m Tillinghast reflector since 1994 January. FAST has a 3 \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage{stmaryrd} \usepackage{textcomp} \usepackage{portland,xspace} \usepackage{amsmath,amsxtra} \usepackage[OT2,OT1]{fontenc} \newcommand\cyr{ \renewcommand\rmdefault{wncyr} \renewcommand\sfdefault{wncyss} \renewcommand\encodingdefault{OT2} \normalfont \selectfont} \DeclareTextFontCommand{\textcyr}{\cyr} \pagestyle{empty} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{9}{7}{6} \begin{document} \landscape

Hectochelle: a multiobject echelle spectrograph for the converted MMT

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The Marshall Grazing Incidence X-Ray Spectrometer (MaGIXS)

\end{document} ‐long slit and is typically operated at resolutions between 1 and 6 A. With a collimated beam diameter of ∼100 mm, FAST (with a 300 lines mm−1 grating and a 1 \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \...

Design, performance prediction, and measurements of the interface region imaging spectrograph (IRIS) telescope

The Hectochelle will be a fiber-fed, multi-object spectrograph for the post-conversion MMT which will take 255 simultaneous spectra at a resolution of 32,000 - 40,000. The absolute efficiency, including optical fiber losses, is predicted to be 6% - 10%, depending on the position of a line within a diffractive order. In one hour, features with 60 mangstrom should be resolved in mR equals 18 stars with a signal to noise of 10.

Arcus: the x-ray grating spectrometer explorer

The Marshall Grazing Incidence X-ray Spectrograph (MaGIXS) is a proposed sounding rocket experiment designed to observe spatially resolved soft X-ray spectra of the solar corona for the first time. The instrument is a purely grazing-incidence design, consisting of aWolter Type-1 sector telescope and a slit spectrograph. The telescope mirror is a monolithic Zerodur mirror with both the parabolic and hyperbolic surfaces. The spectrograph comprises a pair of paraboloid mirrors acting as a collimator and reimaging mirror, and a planar varied-line-space grating, with reflective surfaces operate at a graze angle of 2 degrees. This produces a flat spectrum on a detector covering a wavelength range of 6-24Å (0.5-1.2 keV). The design achieves 20 mÅ spectral resolution (10 mÅ /pixel) and 5 arcsec spatial resolution (2.5 arcsec / pixel) over an 8-arcminute long slit. The spectrograph is currently being fabricated as a laboratory prototype. A flight candidate telescope mirror is also under development.

Performance testing of an off-plane reflection grating and silicon pore optic spectrograph at PANTER

This paper discusses the design of the IRIS Small Explorer (SMEX) Cassegrain telescope, as well as its intended and measured performance. Lockheed Martin, along with SAO, Montana State University, and Stanford University are developing the IRIS instrument for a mission to examine the solar spectra in two bands, one centered on 1369 Å, and the other centered on 2810 Å. SAO led the design and construction of the telescope feed, with assistance from Lockheed and Montana State University. The telescope posed a number of implementation challenges, which are discussed here, including the fact that no effective filters exist to isolate the science spectra to the exclusion of the rest of the solar flux, making it necessary to allow full sunlight into the telescope.

Stigmatic grazing-incidence x-ray spectrograph for solar coronal observations

Arcus will be proposed to the NASA Explorer program as a free-flying satellite mission that will enable high-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy (8-50) with unprecedented sensitivity – effective areas of >500 sq cm and spectral resolution >2500. The Arcus key science goals are (1) to determine how baryons cycle in and out of galaxies by measuring the effects of structure formation imprinted upon the hot gas that is predicted to lie in extended halos around galaxies, groups, and clusters, (2) to determine how black holes influence their surroundings by tracing the propagation of out-flowing mass, energy and momentum from the vicinity of the black hole out to large scales and (3) to understand how accretion forms and evolves stars and circumstellar disks by observing hot infalling and outflowing gas in these systems. Arcus relies upon grazing-incidence silicon pore X-ray optics with the same 12m focal length (achieved using an extendable optical bench) that will be used for the ESA Athena mission. The focused X-rays from these optics will then be diffracted by high-efficiency off-plane reflection gratings that have already been demonstrated on sub-orbital rocket flights, imaging the results with flight-proven CCD detectors and electronics. The power and telemetry requirements on the spacecraft are modest. The majority of mission operations will not be complex, as most observations will be long (~100 ksec), uninterrupted, and pre-planned, although there will be limited capabilities to observe targets of opportunity, such as tidal disruption events or supernovae with a 3-5 day turnaround. After the end of prime science, we plan to allow guest observations to maximize the science return of Arcus to the community.

Arcus: Exploring the formation and evolution of clusters, galaxies, and stars

Abstract. An x-ray spectrograph consisting of aligned, radially ruled off-plane reflection gratings and silicon pore optics (SPO) was tested at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics PANTER x-ray test facility. SPO is a test module for the proposed Arcus mission, which will also feature aligned off-plane reflection gratings. This test is the first time two off-plane gratings were actively aligned to each other and with an SPO to produce an overlapped spectrum. We report the performance of the complete spectrograph utilizing the aligned gratings module and plans for future development.

Optical and x-ray alignment approaches for off-plane reflection gratings

We present the design for a stigmatic grazing incidence X-ray spectrograph designed for solar coronal observations. The spectrograph is composed of a slit, a pair of paraboloid mirrors and a plano varied-line-space grating. All reflective surfaces of the spectrograph operate at an angle of incidence of 88 degrees, and covers a wavelength range of 0.6 to 2.4nm (0.5 to 2.0keV). The design achieves 1.5pm spectral resolution and 15 μm spatial resolution over a 2.5mmlong slit. The current spectrograph design is intended for a sounding rocket experiment, and designed to fit inside a NASA sounding rocket payload behind a 1.1m focal length Wolter Type-1 telescope. This combination will have a 2.5arcsec spatial resolution and a 8 arcminute slit length. We are currently fabricating a laboratory prototype of the spectrograph to demonstrate the performance and establish the alignment procedures for a flight model.

Design, analysis, and performance verification of the interface region imaging spectrograph (IRIS) telescope primary mirror assembly

Arcus, a Medium Explorer (MIDEX) mission, was selected by NASA for a Phase A study in August 2017. The observatory provides high-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy in the 12-50Å bandpass with unprecedented sensitivity: effective areas of >450 cm2 and spectral resolution >2500. The Arcus key science goals are (1) to measure the effects of structure formation imprinted upon the hot baryons that are predicted to lie in extended halos around galaxies, groups, and clusters, (2) to trace the propagation of outflowing mass, energy, and momentum from the vicinity of the black hole to extragalactic scales as a measure of their feedback and (3) to explore how stars, circumstellar disks and exoplanet atmospheres form and evolve. Arcus relies upon the same 12m focal length grazing-incidence silicon pore X-ray optics (SPO) that ESA has developed for the Athena mission; the focal length is achieved on orbit via an extendable optical bench. The focused X-rays from these optics are diffracted by high-efficiency Critical-Angle Transmission (CAT) gratings, and the results are imaged with flight-proven CCD detectors and electronics. The power and telemetry requirements on the spacecraft are modest. Mission operations are straightforward, as most observations will be long (~100 ksec), uninterrupted, and pre-planned, although there will be capabilities to observe sources such as tidal disruption events or supernovae with a ~3 day turnaround. Following the 2nd year of operation, Arcus will transition to a proposal-driven guest observatory facility.