In order to reach this milestone, the GHOST
project has continued to move forward in
2016, despite a couple of setbacks:
First, we lost NRC-H’s project manager, a key
player who moved on to another opportunity outside the organization. The existing
NRC-H team has since absorbed his responsibilities, with some additional help from
within their department.
Second, in mid-2015, the AAO experienced
trouble securing an acceptable optical fiber
from its vendors — until one of them finally
delivered a usable fiber. With the fiber delivered, construction of the prototype fiber assembly is underway. We still believe that it
is possible to manufacture a better fiber, so
AAO is continuing to work with the vendor
to optimize the product. While this prototype fiber assembly is not on the project’s
critical path, it remains a high-risk design
item until completed and tested.
Figure 1.
Sky coverage vs.
Galactic Latitude
with NGS2 on
Gemini South.
(dotted, dashed, and solid lines, respectively). On average, the upgrade will increase
sky coverage by about 2.5 times at the Galactic poles and to about 80% in the single
guide star case for targets within 50º of the
Galactic plane.
GHOST News
During the first week of December, the
Gemini High-resolution Optical Spectrograph (GHOST) team completed the first of
a two-part project milestone: the Critical Design Review. The design team — led by the
Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO)
and partnered with both Canada’s National
Resource Council-Herzberg (NRC-H) and the
Australian National University — expect to
complete the Critical Design Stage with the
second part of this project milestone in early
March 2016.
18
GeminiFocus
During the December 2015 Critical Design
Review, an external committee and the
Gemini GHOST internal team reviewed the
spectrograph optics and system software
and completed designs for the Cassegrain
unit, fiber assembly, and slit-viewing assembly. Early in March 2016 a second review will
cover the spectrograph’s optomechanical
design and electronics, as well as the thermal enclosure design and anything else that
still needs addressing from the first review.
In other news, NRC-H expects the imminent
arrival of GHOST’s first engineering grade CCD
detectors that were ordered in the first quarter of 2015. This CCD will be characterized and
integrated in preparation for the arrival of the
science grade detectors in third quarter 2016.
Adding to this progress, the Gemini Board
has recently endorsed the decision to locate
GHOST at Gemini South, where preparations
have begun to receive the instrument. We
expect delivery near the end of 2017. After
January 2016