MRI: Development of VIRUS2 - A Scalable Integral Field Spectrograph for McDonald Observatory

MRI：开发 VIRUS2 - 麦克唐纳天文台的可扩展整体场摄谱仪

• 批准号: 1532169
• 负责人: Gary Hill
• 金额: $ 254.97万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-11-01 至 2021-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1532169&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; VIRUS2; Scalable; Integral

This award funds the development of a new astronomical instrument at the McDonald Observatory in West Texas. The VIRUS2 spectrograph design will be well-adapted to future applications on the next generation of extremely large telescopes, and offers a cost-effective way to instrument such telescopes. This program will provide the opportunity for students to be involved in the design, assembly, and commissioning of the instrument. VIRUS2 is a scalable Integral Field Spectrograph for the McDonald Observatory 2.7-m telescope. It will be based on technology developed for the original VIRUS instrument on the Hobby Eberly Telescope (HET), also at McDonald. The VIRUS spectrograph is adaptable to a range of spectral resolutions and wavelengths. VIRUS2 will utilize three replicated units to cover wavelengths 370-915 nm at resolution ~2300. The large investment already made in VIRUS makes this follow-on project lower in cost than starting from scratch and should allow for a rapid schedule and low risk. The resulting instrument will enable studies complementary to ongoing structure surveys of nearby galaxies (MaNGA, SAMI, CALIFA, VENGA) by extending observations to the outskirts of galaxies.

该奖项用于资助得克萨斯州西部的麦克唐纳天文台开发一种新的天文仪器。VIRUS2光谱仪的设计将很好地适应未来在下一代超大型望远镜上的应用，并提供一种具有成本效益的方式来测量这类望远镜。本课程将为学生提供参与仪器的设计、组装和调试的机会。VIRUS2是用于麦克唐纳天文台2.7米望远镜的可缩放的积分场光谱仪。它将基于为霍比·埃伯利望远镜(HET)上的原始病毒仪器开发的技术，也是在麦当劳。该病毒光谱仪可适应多种光谱分辨率和波长。VIRUS2将利用三个复制单元以~2300的分辨率覆盖370-915 nm的波长。已经在病毒方面进行了大量投资，这使得这个后续项目的成本比从头开始更低，应该可以实现快速进度和低风险。由此产生的仪器将通过将观测扩展到星系的外围，使研究成为对附近星系(漫画、萨米、加州、文加)进行的结构调查的补充。