Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) instrumentation update

Lisa A. Crause; Marsha J. Wolf; Matthew A. Bershady; Michael P. Smith; Joshua Oppor; Moses Mogotsi; Richard A. McCracken; Yuk Shan Cheng; Daniel L. Holdsworth; Willem J. van der Westhuizen; Etienne L. Simon; Malcolm C. Scarrott; Derryck T. Reid; Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay; Craig Sass; Kurt Jaehnig; Jeff Percival; Ralf Kotulla; Anthony Koeslag; Enrico J. Kotze; Janus Brink; Deon R. Lategan; David A. H. Buckley; Lee Townsend; John W. Menzies; Kathryn Rosie; Rosalind Skelton; Danièl Groenewald; Eben Wiid; Nico van der Merwe; Melanie Saayman; Alexei Kniazev; Rudi Kuhn; Tasheen Naicker; Roufurd Julie; Encarni Romero Colmenero; Paul Rabe

doi:10.1117/12.3018784

18 July 2024 Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) instrumentation update

Lisa A. Crause, Marsha J. Wolf, Matthew A. Bershady, Michael P. Smith, Joshua Oppor, Moses Mogotsi, Richard A. McCracken, Yuk Shan Cheng, Daniel L. Holdsworth, Willem J. van der Westhuizen, Etienne L. Simon, Malcolm C. Scarrott, Derryck T. Reid, Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay, Craig Sass, Kurt Jaehnig, Jeff Percival, Ralf Kotulla, Anthony Koeslag, Enrico J. Kotze, Janus Brink, Deon R. Lategan, David A. H. Buckley, Lee Townsend, John W. Menzies, Kathryn Rosie, Rosalind Skelton, Danièl Groenewald, Eben Wiid, Nico van der Merwe, Melanie Saayman, Alexei Kniazev, Rudi Kuhn, Tasheen Naicker, Roufurd Julie, Encarni Romero Colmenero, Paul Rabe

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13096, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X; 1309607 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018784
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

Abstract

The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) is a 10-m class fixed-elevation telescope with a primary mirror composed of 91 spherically figured one metre segments. A prime focus tracker assembly carries the spherical aberration corrector (SAC) and two of SALT’s instruments, SALTICAM (the acquisition and imaging camera) and the multi-purpose Robert Stobie spectrograph (RSS). Included in the tracker payload is a fibre-instrument feed, that positions ~45m long fibre cables coupled to the spectrographs in thermal enclosures beneath the telescope. These are the High-Resolution Spectrograph (HRS) and NIRWALS (Near InfraRed Washburn Astronomical Laboratories Spectrograph). The other major undertaking is a custom-built laser frequency comb and precision radial velocity data pipeline for the HRS, due in 2025. A novel RSS slit-mask IFU was recently commissioned, adding optical IFU spectroscopy to SALT’s capabilities. Work is also underway to develop a new red channel to turn the RSS into a dual-beam spectrograph. A study done in 2021 investigated the feasibility of building deployable robotic arms equipped with mini SACs to take advantage of SALT’s huge uncorrected field of view. Lastly, a pre-study is now underway to explore options for replacing the SAC and prime focus payload on the tracker to improve telescope performance and make provision for future instrument development.

Conference Presentation

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Lisa A. Crause, Marsha J. Wolf, Matthew A. Bershady, Michael P. Smith, Joshua Oppor, Moses Mogotsi, Richard A. McCracken, Yuk Shan Cheng, Daniel L. Holdsworth, Willem J. van der Westhuizen, Etienne L. Simon, Malcolm C. Scarrott, Derryck T. Reid, Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay, Craig Sass, Kurt Jaehnig, Jeff Percival, Ralf Kotulla, Anthony Koeslag, Enrico J. Kotze, Janus Brink, Deon R. Lategan, David A. H. Buckley, Lee Townsend, John W. Menzies, Kathryn Rosie, Rosalind Skelton, Danièl Groenewald, Eben Wiid, Nico van der Merwe, Melanie Saayman, Alexei Kniazev, Rudi Kuhn, Tasheen Naicker, Roufurd Julie, Encarni Romero Colmenero, and Paul Rabe "Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) instrumentation update", Proc. SPIE 13096, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X, 1309607 (18 July 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3018784

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