The MANIFEST fibre positioning system for the Giant Magellan Telescope

Jon S. Lawrence; David M. Brown; Jurek Brzeski; Scott Case; Matthew Colless; Tony Farrell; Luke Gers; James Gilbert; Michael Goodwin; George Jacoby; Andrew M. Hopkins; Michael Ireland; Kyler Kuehn; Nuria P. F. Lorente; Stan Miziarski; Rolf Muller; Vijay Nichani; Azizi Rakman; Samuel Richards; Will Saunders; Nick F. Staszak; Julia Tims; Minh Vuong; Lew Waller

doi:10.1117/12.2055742

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28 July 2014 The MANIFEST fibre positioning system for the Giant Magellan Telescope

Jon S. Lawrence, David M. Brown, Jurek Brzeski, Scott Case, Matthew Colless, Tony Farrell, Luke Gers, James Gilbert, Michael Goodwin, George Jacoby, Andrew M. Hopkins, Michael Ireland, Kyler Kuehn, Nuria P. F. Lorente, Stan Miziarski, Rolf Muller, Vijay Nichani, Azizi Rakman, Samuel Richards, Will Saunders, Nick F. Staszak, Julia Tims, Minh Vuong, Lew Waller

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Proceedings Volume 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V; 914794 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055742
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

MANIFEST is a fibre feed system for the Giant Magellan Telescope that, coupled to the seeing-limited instruments GMACS and G-CLEF, offers qualitative and quantitative gains over each instrument’s native capabilities in terms of multiplex, field of view, and resolution. The MANIFEST instrument concept is based on a system of semi-autonomous probes called “Starbugs” that hold and position hundreds of optical fibre IFUs under a glass field plate placed at the GMT Cassegrain focal plane. The Starbug probes feature co-axial piezoceramic tubes that, via the application of appropriate AC waveforms, contract or bend, providing a discrete stepping motion. Simultaneous positioning of all Starbugs is achieved via a closed-loop metrology system.

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Jon S. Lawrence, David M. Brown, Jurek Brzeski, Scott Case, Matthew Colless, Tony Farrell, Luke Gers, James Gilbert, Michael Goodwin, George Jacoby, Andrew M. Hopkins, Michael Ireland, Kyler Kuehn, Nuria P. F. Lorente, Stan Miziarski, Rolf Muller, Vijay Nichani, Azizi Rakman, Samuel Richards, Will Saunders, Nick F. Staszak, Julia Tims, Minh Vuong, and Lew Waller "The MANIFEST fibre positioning system for the Giant Magellan Telescope", Proc. SPIE 9147, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, 914794 (28 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2055742

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