The 4-meter Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) instrument uses 2436 individually positioned optical fibres to couple the light of targets into its spectrographs. The Fibre Target Alignment (FTA) software controls all aspects of the 4MOST instrument that are involved to position the 2448 spines of the AESOP positioner to their target locations closer than 10µm RMS, within 90 seconds. The AESOP fibre positioner provides a HTML interface which is used by the FTA software to command spine movements. The metrology system consists of four cameras, and a sophisticated software package to measure the location of fibres, which are moved by the AESOP spines. Spines reach their target typically after six to eight iterative movements, which are interlaced with metrology frames. The metrology software is capable of taking 4 images simultaneously, and reconstructing fibre positions to within 3μm RMS within five seconds. We present the FTA control software architecture, the interaction of sub-components and the different operation modes of the system. Especially the concurrent and simultaneous control of four metrology camera processes. Due to the complexity of the system, comprehensive debugging and visualization tools have been developed which allow a detailed understanding and interaction of the entire system. The graphical tool provides feedback for each individual camera stream and their combined result. It provides statistics and tools to manipulate individual spines, especially to recover them in case of entanglement. To develop the control software, a full end-to-end simulator has been created, which closes the loop between metrology image simulation, simulated fibre positioning and all control aspects in between. The metrology system uses the current spine position as presented by the AESOP positioner to render metrology camera images. Analysis and downstream computation is identical to the live software. When commanded to move spines, The AESOP simulator executes the identical steps to move spines, except sending electrical signals. After which it returns the expected spine positions after their move, which is taken as input for the next FTA iteration.
4MOST is a versatile spectroscopic facility soon to be installed on the ESO VISTA Telescope at Paranal. Prior to shipment to Chile, our team is conducting a comprehensive characterization of the instrument in a controlled laboratory setting. This preparatory phase is crucial for ensuring the fulfilment of both technical specifications and some key user requirements. The goal of this verification campaign is to obtain characterization data which will benchmark the performance of the spectrographs and the calibration unit against established metrics. The data primarily tests the spectral performance of the three spectrographs, the stability of the system, including the calibration unit, as well as the fiber throughput, which are pivotal for the success of 4MOST’s ambitious science goals. Additionally, the verification contains a selection of user requirements, ensuring the instrument’s readiness for the diverse scientific objectives it aims to enable. The results from these tests inform the observational strategy for future normal science operations. In this paper we outline the undertaken preparatory work, the applied testing procedures, and the anticipated implications of these tests, and their results, in the context of the final verification at the telescope, commissioning and normal science operations. This initial test phase marks a critical juncture in the 4MOST project timeline, setting the stage for a successful commissioning.
The 4-meter Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST) instrument uses 2436 individually positioned optical fibres to couple the light of targets into its spectrographs. The AESOP fibre positioner is mounted at the Cassegrain focus of the VISTA telescope, which houses the fibres in a hexagon-like structure with a diameter of 535 mm that covers a 2.5 deg diameter field of view on the sky. Fibres are positioned relative to fixed fiducial fibres. The metrology system determines the position of the fibres on the focal surface of the telescope relative to the fiducial fibres. The location of the fibres needs to be measured to better than 3 micron RMS in the focal surface, approximately 0.05 arc seconds on sky. Four imaging cameras are mounted on the VISTA spider vanes that look through the entire optical train, including primary and secondary mirror as well as the wide field corrector (WFC) / atmospheric dispersion compensator (ADC) unit. We recreated the setup for the metrology system in the lab with similar dynamic behavior but different optical design due to the lack of the VISTA telescope. We demonstrate the metrology system measurement accuracy in lab conditions on the full scale test stand. We also show how we measure distortions induced by optical path and the calibration procedure as a precursor for commissioning on the telescope. In particular, we present a method how to measure the surface shape of any optical surface with approx. 10 nm accuracy over its entire optically active surface.
The LUCI instruments are a pair of NIR imagers and multi-object spectrographs located at the front bent Gregorian foci of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). One of their special features is their diffraction-limited imaging and long-slit spectroscopic capability in combination with the LBT adaptive secondary mirrors. This allows to achieve a spatial resolution down to 60mas and a spectral resolution of up to 25000. Switching from seeing-limited to diffraction-limited observations changes several operational aspects due to features such as the non-common path aberration or the flexure of the instruments. They all require novel techniques to optimize the image quality and to maximize the scientific return. Non-common path aberration can be corrected via look-up tables. For active flexure compensation the night-sky emission is used. The commissioning of the instruments in diffraction-limited mode on sky is largely finished and the instruments have been handed over to the LBT in April 2018.
LUCI1 and LUCI2 are a pair multi-mode, fully cryogenic near-infrared instruments installed at the Large Binoc- ular Telescope (LBT). The instruments provide imaging, long-slit and multi-object spectroscopy over a 4/ FoV in seeing-limited mode. Ground-layer AO (GLAO) correction for imaging and spectroscopy over the 4/ FoV is available using the ARGOS laser system, as well as diffraction-limited AO over a 30// FoV using the LBT first light AO (FLAO) system with natural guide stars. Internal flexure of the instrument is taken care of by passive and active flexure compensation. Image shifts in seeing-limited modes are compensated by a passive flexure con- trol algorithm using pre-defined look-up tables. For AO observations, passive compensation is replaced by active control. In the following, we present the details of the newly developed active flexure compensation algorithm for the LUCI instruments. We also describe some hardware modifications to the instruments and the results obtained with active flexure compensation.
The 4-m Multi-Object Spectrographic Telescope (4MOST) is one high-resolution (R ~ 18000) and two lowresolution (R fi 5000) spectrographs covering the wavelength range between 390 and 950 nm. The spectrographs will be installed on ESO VISTA telescope and will be fed by approximately 2400 fibres. The instrument is capable to simultaneously obtain spectra of about 2400 objects distributed over an hexagonal field-of-view of four square degrees. This paper aims at giving an overview of the control software design, which is based on the standard ESO VLT software architecture and customised to fit the needs of the 4MOST instrument. In particular, the facility control software is intended to arrange the precise positioning of the fibres, to schedule and observe many surveys in parallel, and to combine the output from the three spectrographs. Moreover, 4MOST's software will include user-friendly graphical user interfaces that enable users to interact with the facility control system and to monitor all data-taking and calibration tasks of the instrument. A secondary guiding system will be implemented to correct for any fibre exure and thus to improve 4MOST's guiding performance. The large amount of fibres requires the custom design of data exchange to avoid performance issues. The observation sequences are designed to use spectrographs in parallel with synchronous points for data exchange between subsystems. In order to control hardware devices, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) components will be used, the new standard for future instruments at ESO.
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