Research Division Seminar
MOONS@VLT

Abstract

MOONS is a 0.8 to 1.8 microns multi-object spectrometer for the Nasmyth focus of UT1 that is being built by a consortium led by the UK-ATC. The instrument is fibre fed, has a multiplex of 1000 and covers a total field of 25 arc minutes in diameter with a high transmission. There are two spectral resolving powers, ~4000 spanning the full wavelength range and a higher resolution mode which gives ~9000 in the I window and ~20,000 in a region in H windows. The instrument itself has two main parts:

• The rotating front-end which is at the focal plane and houses the fibre positioners, acquisition system, metrology system for the fibres, etc., and
• The cryogenic spectrograph which houses the spectrograph optics, VPH gratings and detectors.

MOONS is now approaching completion and is due to be shipped to Paranal in March 2024. This talk presents the MOONS instrument, the science that it will allow, and its current status.