Development of the opto-mechanical design for ICE-T

ICE-T (International Concordia Explorer Telescope) is a double 60 cm f/1.1 photometric robotic telescope, on a parallactic mount, which will operate at Dome C, in the long Antarctic night, aiming to investigate exoplanets and activity of the hosting stars. Antarctic Plateau site is well known to be one of the best in the world for observations because of sky transparency in all wavelengths and low scintillation noise. Due to the extremely harsh environmental conditions (the lowest average temperature is -80$^\circ$C) the criteria adopted for an optimal design are really challenging. Here we present the strategies we have adopted so far to fulfill the mechanical and optical requirements.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, contributed talk at 'An astronomical Observatory at Concordia (Dome C, Antarctica) for the next decade', 11-15 May, Rome (Italy

ELT high resolution spectrograph: phase-A software architecture study

High resolution spectroscopy has been considered of a primary importance to exploit the main scientific cases foreseen for ESO ELT, the Extremely Large Telescope, the future largest optical-infrared telescope in the world. In this context ESO commissioned a Phase-A feasibility study for the construction of a high resolution spectrograph for the ELT, tentatively named HIRES. The study, which lasted 1.5 years, started on March 2016 and was completed with a review phase held at Garching ESO headquarters with the aim to assess the scientific and technical feasibility of the proposed instrument. One of the main tasks of the study is the architectural design of the software covering all the aspects relevant to control an astronomical instrument: from observation preparation through instrument hardware and detectors control till data reduction and analysis. In this paper we present the outcome of the Phase-A study for the proposed HIRES software design highlighting its peculiarities, critical areas and performance aspects for the whole data flow. The End-toEnd simulator, a tool already capable of simulating HIRES end products and currently being used to drive some design decision, is also shortly described

EELT-HIRES the high-resolution spectrograph for the E-ELT

The first generation of E-ELT instruments will include an optic-infrared High Resolution Spectrograph, conventionally indicated as EELT-HIRES, which will be capable of providing unique breakthroughs in the fields of exoplanets, star and planet formation, physics and evolution of stars and galaxies, cosmology and fundamental physics. A 2-year long phase A study for EELT-HIRES has just started and will be performed by a consortium composed of institutes and organisations from Brazil, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. In this paper we describe the science goals and the preliminary technical concept for EELT-HIRES which will be developed during the phase A, as well as its planned development and consortium organisation during the study.This work was supported from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (Istituto Nazionale Italiano di Astrofisica, INAF). RM , DB, CH, MF, XS, DQ and MGH acknowledge support from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). MGH is supported by the ERC Advanced grant Emergence-32056. This work was supported by Fundaçao para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), project ref. PTDC/FIS-AST/1526/2014, through national funds and by FEDER through COMPETE2020 (ref. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016886), as well as through grant UID/FIS/04434/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007672). P.F. and N.C.S. also acknowledge the support from FCT through Investigador FCT contracts of reference IF/01037/2013, IF/00169/2012, and IF/00028/2014, respectively, and POPH/FSE (EC) by FEDER funding through the program “Programa Operacional de Factores de Competitividade - COMPETE”. P.F. further acknowledge support from FCT in the form of exploratory projects of reference IF/01037/2013CP1191/CT0001 and IF/00028/2014/CP1215/CT0002. PJA acknowledges financial support from AYA2011-30147-C03-01 and AYA2014-54348-C3-1-R by MINECO/Spain, partially supported by FEDER funds/EU. Research activities of the Board of Stellar Astronomy, at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte are supported by continuous grant of CNPq, FAPERN and CAPES brazilian agencies and by the INCT INEspaço. E.D.M and V.Zh.A. also acknowledge the support from the FCT (Portugal) in the form of the grants SFRH/BPD/76606/2011 and SFRH/BPD/70574/2010, respectively

ELT-HIRES, the high resolution spectrograph for the ELT: results from the Phase A study

We present the results from the phase A study of ELT-HIRES, an optical-infrared High Resolution Spectrograph for ELT, which has just been completed by a consortium of 30 institutes from 12 countries forming a team of about 200 scientists and engineers. The top science cases of ELT-HIRES will be the detection of life signatures from exoplanet atmospheres, tests on the stability of Nature's fundamental couplings, the direct detection of the cosmic acceleration. However, the science requirements of these science cases enable many other groundbreaking science cases. The baseline design, which allows to fulfil the top science cases, consists in a modular fiber- fed cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph with two ultra-stable spectral arms providing a simultaneous spectral range of 0.4-1.8 μm at a spectral resolution of 100,000. The fiber-feeding allows ELT-HIRES to have several, interchangeable observing modes including a SCAO module and a small diffraction-limited IFU

Main tasks for IRAIT installation at Dome C

IRAIT (International Robotic Antarctic Infrared Telescope) is a telescope with an 80 cm aperture, ready for installation at Dome C. Equipped with AMICA (Antarctic Multiband Infrared CAmera), the main focal plane instrument, it will observe in near (1–5 μ) and mid infrared regions (5–28 μ), benefiting from the exceptional site characteristics. The installation will start in December 2007. An overview of interfacing devices and the integration of various IRAIT subsystems are here presented