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Title: ProtoDESI: First On-Sky Technology Demonstration for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument

Journal Article · · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
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  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States
  2. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), Tuscon, AZ (United States)
  3. The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona (Spain)
  4. Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
  5. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
  6. Boston Univ., MA (United States)
  7. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
  8. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  9. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  10. Univ. of Warwick, Coventry (United States)
  11. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  12. Univ. of California, Observatories, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)
  13. Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC), Barcelona, (Spain)
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The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is under construction to measure the expansion history of the universe using the baryon acoustic oscillations technique. The spectra of 35 million galaxies and quasars over 14,000 square degrees will be measured during a 5-year survey. A new prime focus corrector for the Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory will deliver light to 5,000 individually targeted fiber-fed robotic positioners. The fibers in turn feed ten broadband multi-object spectrographs. We describe the ProtoDESI experiment, that was installed and commissioned on the 4-m Mayall telescope from August 14 to September 30, 2016. ProtoDESI was an on-sky technology demonstration with the goal to reduce technical risks associated with aligning optical fibers with targets using robotic fiber positioners and maintaining the stability required to operate DESI. The ProtoDESI prime focus instrument, consisting of three fiber positioners, illuminated fiducials, and a guide camera, was installed behind the existing Mosaic corrector on the Mayall telescope. A Fiber View Camera was mounted in the Cassegrain cage of the telescope and provided feedback metrology for positioning the fibers. ProtoDESI also provided a platform for early integration of hardware with the DESI Instrument Control System that controls the subsystems, provides communication with the Telescope Control System, and collects instrument telemetry data. Lacking a spectrograph, ProtoDESI monitored the output of the fibers using a Fiber Photometry Camera mounted on the prime focus instrument. ProtoDESI was successful in acquiring targets with the robotically positioned fibers and demonstrated that the DESI guiding requirements can be met.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Science Foundation (NSF); United Kingdom Science and Technologies Facilities Council; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF); Heising-Simons Foundation; National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico; European Union (EU)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC02-76SF00515; AC02-05CH1123; AST-0950945; 320964; AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1650030
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1419972; OSTI ID: 1438046
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-17-496-CD; arXiv:1710.08875; ark:/13030/qt55n6t108; TRN: US2202832
Journal Information:
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 130, Issue 984; ISSN 0004-6280
Publisher:
Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (21)

The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of Sdss-Iii journal December 2012
Impact of optical distortions on fiber positioning in the dark energy spectroscopic instrument conference August 2016
Star Counts and Galactic Structure journal September 1986
Gaia Data Release 1 : Testing parallaxes with local Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars⋆ journal September 2017
Modernization of the Mayall Telescope control system: design, implementation, and performance conference August 2016
VIRUS early installation and commissioning conference August 2016
Observational probes of cosmic acceleration journal September 2013
Mosaic3: a red-sensitive upgrade for the prime focus camera at the Mayall 4m telescope conference August 2016
PreCam: A Precursor Observational Campaign for Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey journal April 2013
Probing Dark Energy with Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations from Future Large Galaxy Redshift Surveys journal December 2003
The DECam data acquisition and control system conference July 2010
Clustering in real space and in redshift space journal July 1987
A new telescope control software for the Mayall 4-meter telescope conference July 2016
The DESI fiber positioner system conference August 2016
Gaia Data Release 1 : Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties journal November 2016
The Two Micron All Sky Survey: Survey Rationale and Initial Testing journal July 1994
The DESI instrument control system conference August 2016
LSST telescope integration and tests conference July 2014
The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III text January 2012
PreCam, a Precursor Observational Campaign for Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey text January 2012
Probing Dark Energy with Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations from Future Large Galaxy Redshift Surveys text January 2003

Cited By (1)

The DESI Fiber View Camera System journal May 2019

Figures / Tables (25)

Figure 1(p. 3)figure Figure 1
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Table 1(p. 12)table Table 1
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Table 2(p. 17)table Table 2
Figure 16(p. 18)figure Figure 16
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Table 3(p. 22)table Table 3

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Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Dark energy: BAO
Baryon acoustic oscillations
Instrumentation: miscellaneous
Methods: Observational
Telescopes
Galaxies
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY