The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second-generation VLT panoramic integral-field ... more The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second-generation VLT panoramic integral-field spectrograph under preliminary design study. MUSE has a field of 1x1 arcmin**2 sampled at 0.2x0.2 arcsec**2 and is assisted by the VLT ground layer adaptive optics ESO facility using four laser guide stars. The simultaneous spectral range is 465-930 nm, at a resolution of R~3000. MUSE couples the discovery potential of a large imaging device to the measuring capabilities of a high-quality spectrograph, while taking advantage of the increased spatial resolution provided by adaptive optics. This makes MUSE a unique and tremendously powerful instrument for discovering and characterizing objects that lie beyond the reach of even the deepest imaging surveys. MUSE has also a high spatial resolution mode with 7.5x7.5 arcsec**2 field of view sampled at 25 milli-arcsec. In this mode MUSE should be able to obtain diffraction limited data-cubes in the 600-930 nm wavelength range. Although the MUSE design has been optimized for the study of galaxy formation and evolution, it has a wide range of possible applications; e.g. monitoring of outer planets atmosphere, environment of young stellar objects, super massive black holes and active nuclei in nearby galaxies or massive spectroscopic surveys of stellar fields in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.
The average responsive quantum efficiency of GEC/EEV P8603A front-illuminated epitaxial CCDs has ... more The average responsive quantum efficiency of GEC/EEV P8603A front-illuminated epitaxial CCDs has been increased to ≅26% in the spectral range 300 - 400 nm by coating the surface of the chips with a fluorescent plastic film. The composition of the dye mixture and the method of application are given. One of these coated chips has been successfully used with a Boller & Chivens spectrograph mounted on the 2.2 m telescope at La Silla. The system efficiency was 1 photon/sec/Å for a star of m320 = 13 and m350 = 13.9 respectively. Calibrated spectra of the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3783 and of the central star of the planetary nebula NGC 5882 are presented.
For many instrumental applications CCD detectors of a size exceeding the present standard size of... more For many instrumental applications CCD detectors of a size exceeding the present standard size of about 15×10 mm are desired. Many manufacturers are working on the production of array devices with 1000 or even 2000 pixels with size between 19 and 27 mum. The prospects are encouraging, but so far the development phase of these devices is not yet completed
The average responsive quantum efficiency of GEC/EEV P8603A front-illuminated epitaxial CCDs has ... more The average responsive quantum efficiency of GEC/EEV P8603A front-illuminated epitaxial CCDs has been increased to ≅26% in the spectral range 300 - 400 nm by coating the surface of the chips with a fluorescent plastic film. The composition of the dye mixture and the method of application are given. One of these coated chips has been successfully used with a Boller & Chivens spectrograph mounted on the 2.2 m telescope at La Silla. The system efficiency was 1 photon/sec/Å for a star of m320 = 13 and m350 = 13.9 respectively. Calibrated spectra of the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3783 and of the central star of the planetary nebula NGC 5882 are presented.
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, 2012
ABSTRACT The 24 IFU from MUSE are equipped with 4K x 4K CCD detectors which are operated at cryog... more ABSTRACT The 24 IFU from MUSE are equipped with 4K x 4K CCD detectors which are operated at cryogenic temperature around 160 K. The large size of the chip combined with a rather fast camera (F/2) impose strong positioning constrains. The sensitive surface should remain in an angular envelope of less than 30 arc sec in both directions. The ambitious goal of having the same spectrum format on every detector imposes also a very accurate positioning in the image plane. The central pixel has to be located in a square smaller 50 microns relative to the external references. The first part of the paper describes the mechanical design of the detector head. We concentrate on the various aspects of the design with its very complex interfaces. The opto-mechanical concept is presented with an emphasis on the robustness and reliability. We present also the necessary steps for the extreme optimization of the cryogenic performance of this compact design driven with a permanent view of the production in series. The techniques and procedures developed in order to meet and verify the very tight positioning requirements are described in a second part. Then the 24 fully assembled systems undergo a system verification using one of the MUSE spectrographs. These tests include a focus series, the determination of the PSF across the chip and a subsequent calculation of the tip/tilt and shift rotation of the detector versus the optical axis.
Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy IV, 2010
MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument developed for ESO (Eur... more MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument developed for ESO (European Southern Observatory) and will be assembled to the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in 2012. The MUSE instrument can simultaneously record 90.000 spectra in the visible wavelength range (465-930nm), across a 1*1arcmin2 field of view, thanks to 24 identical Integral Field Units (IFU). A collaboration of 7
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III, 2010
Summary: The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second-generation VLT panoramic integr... more Summary: The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second-generation VLT panoramic integral-field spectrograph currently in manufacturing, assembly and integration phase. MUSE has a field of 1x1 arcmin2 sampled at 0.2x0.2 arcsec2 and is assisted by the VLT ground layer adaptive optics ESO facility using four laser guide stars. The instrument is a large assembly of 24 identical high performance
Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy IV, 2010
MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument developed for ESO (Eur... more MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument developed for ESO (European Southern Observatory) to be installed on the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in year 2012. The MUSE project is supported by a European consortium of 7 institutes. After a successful Final Design Review the project is now facing a turning point which consist in shifting from design
Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy V, 2012
ABSTRACT MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument built for ESO... more ABSTRACT MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument built for ESO (European Southern Observatory) to be installed in Chile on the VLT (Very Large Telescope). The MUSE project is supported by a European consortium of 7 institutes. After the critical turning point of shifting from the design to the manufacturing phase, the MUSE project has now completed the realization of its different sub-systems and should finalize its global integration and test in Europe. To arrive to this point many challenges had to be overcome, many technical difficulties, non compliances or procurements delays which seemed at the time overwhelming. Now is the time to face the results of our organization, of our strategy, of our choices. Now is the time to face the reality of the MUSE instrument. During the design phase a plan was provided by the project management in order to achieve the realization of the MUSE instrument in specification, time and cost. This critical moment in the project life when the instrument takes shape and reality is the opportunity to look not only at the outcome but also to see how well we followed the original plan, what had to be changed or adapted and what should have been.
The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer MUSE [MUSE public web site: http://muse. univ-lyon1. fr] is... more The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer MUSE [MUSE public web site: http://muse. univ-lyon1. fr] is one of the second generation VLT instruments. MUSE is a wide-field optical integral field spectrograph operating in the visible wavelength range with improved spatial ...
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, 2012
ABSTRACT MUSE with its 24 detectors distributed over an eight square meter vertical area was requ... more ABSTRACT MUSE with its 24 detectors distributed over an eight square meter vertical area was requiring a well engineered and extremely reliable cryogenic system. The solution should also use a technology proven to be compatible with the very high sensitivity of the VLT interferometer. A short introduction reviews the various available technologies to cool these 24 chips down to 160 K. The first part of the paper presents the selected concept insisting on the various advantages offered by LN2. In addition to the purely vacuum and cryogenic aspects we highlight some of the most interesting features given by the control system based on a PLC.
Second Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes, 2004
Layer Oriented represented in the last few years a new and promising aproach to solve the problem... more Layer Oriented represented in the last few years a new and promising aproach to solve the problems related to the limited field of view achieved by classical Adaptive Optics systems. It is basically a different approach to multi conjugate adaptive optics, in which pupil plane wavefront sensors (like the pyramid one) are conjugated to the same altitudes as the deformable mirrors. Each wavefront sensor is independently driving its conjugated deformable mirror thus simplifying strongly the complexity of the wavefront computers used to reconstruct the deformations and drive the mirror themselves, fact that can become very important in the case of extremely large telescopes where the complexity is a serious issue. The fact of using pupil plane wavefront sensors allow for optical co-addition of the light at the level of the detector thus increasing the SNR of the system and permitting the usage of faint stars, improving the efficiency of the wavefront sensor. Furthermore if coupled to the Pyramid wavefront sensor (because of its high sensitivity), this technique is actually peforming a very efficient usage of the light leading to the expectation that, even by using only natural guide stars, a good sky coverage can be achieved, above all in the case of giant telescopes. These are the main reasons for which in the last two years several projects decided to make MCAO systems based on the Layer Oriented technique. This is the case of MAD (an MCAO demonstrator that ESO is building with one wavefront sensing channel based on the Layer Oriented concept) and NIRVANA (an instrument for LBT). Few months ago we built and successfully tested a first prototype of a layer oriented wavefront sensor and experiments and demonstrations on the sky are foreseen even before the effective first light of the above mentioned instruments. The current situation of all these projects is presented, including the extensive laboratory testing and the on-going experiments on the sky.
Abstract: Progress in FPGA technology has made it possible to build a very compact, versatile, lo... more Abstract: Progress in FPGA technology has made it possible to build a very compact, versatile, low power detector array controller based on high speed serial link technology. All data and communication transfers run between back-end and front-end, and within the ...
The European Southern Observatory together with external research Institutes is building a Multi-... more The European Southern Observatory together with external research Institutes is building a Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) to perform wide field of view adaptive optics correction. The aim of MAD is to demonstrate on the sky the feasibility of the MCAO technique and to evaluate all the critical aspects in building such kind of instrument in the framework of both
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, 2014
ABSTRACT CUBES is a high-efficiency, medium-resolution (R ≃ 20, 000) spectrograph dedicated to th... more ABSTRACT CUBES is a high-efficiency, medium-resolution (R ≃ 20, 000) spectrograph dedicated to the “ground based UV” (approximately the wavelength range from 300 to 400nm) destined for the Cassegrain focus of one of ESO’s VLT unit telescopes in 2018/19. The CUBES project is a joint venture between ESO and Instituto de Astronomia, Geof´ısica e Ciˆencias Atmosf´ericas (IAG) at the Universidade de S˜ao Paulo and the Brazilian Laborat´orio Nacional de Astrofs´ıca (LNA). CUBES will provide access to a wealth of new and relevant information for stellar as well as extra-galactic sources. Principle science cases include the study of heavy elements in metal-poor stars, the direct determination of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen abundances by study of molecular bands in the UV range and the determination of the Beryllium abundance as well as the study of active galactic nuclei and the inter-galactic medium. With a streamlined modern instrument design, high efficiency dispersing elements and UV-sensitive detectors, it will enable a significant gain in sensitivity over existing ground based medium-high resolution spectrographs enabling vastly increased sample sizes accessible to the astronomical community. We present here a brief overview of the project, introducing the science cases that drive the design and discussing the design options and technological challenges.
The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second-generation VLT panoramic integral-field ... more The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second-generation VLT panoramic integral-field spectrograph under preliminary design study. MUSE has a field of 1x1 arcmin**2 sampled at 0.2x0.2 arcsec**2 and is assisted by the VLT ground layer adaptive optics ESO facility using four laser guide stars. The simultaneous spectral range is 465-930 nm, at a resolution of R~3000. MUSE couples the discovery potential of a large imaging device to the measuring capabilities of a high-quality spectrograph, while taking advantage of the increased spatial resolution provided by adaptive optics. This makes MUSE a unique and tremendously powerful instrument for discovering and characterizing objects that lie beyond the reach of even the deepest imaging surveys. MUSE has also a high spatial resolution mode with 7.5x7.5 arcsec**2 field of view sampled at 25 milli-arcsec. In this mode MUSE should be able to obtain diffraction limited data-cubes in the 600-930 nm wavelength range. Although the MUSE design has been optimized for the study of galaxy formation and evolution, it has a wide range of possible applications; e.g. monitoring of outer planets atmosphere, environment of young stellar objects, super massive black holes and active nuclei in nearby galaxies or massive spectroscopic surveys of stellar fields in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.
The average responsive quantum efficiency of GEC/EEV P8603A front-illuminated epitaxial CCDs has ... more The average responsive quantum efficiency of GEC/EEV P8603A front-illuminated epitaxial CCDs has been increased to ≅26% in the spectral range 300 - 400 nm by coating the surface of the chips with a fluorescent plastic film. The composition of the dye mixture and the method of application are given. One of these coated chips has been successfully used with a Boller & Chivens spectrograph mounted on the 2.2 m telescope at La Silla. The system efficiency was 1 photon/sec/Å for a star of m320 = 13 and m350 = 13.9 respectively. Calibrated spectra of the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3783 and of the central star of the planetary nebula NGC 5882 are presented.
For many instrumental applications CCD detectors of a size exceeding the present standard size of... more For many instrumental applications CCD detectors of a size exceeding the present standard size of about 15×10 mm are desired. Many manufacturers are working on the production of array devices with 1000 or even 2000 pixels with size between 19 and 27 mum. The prospects are encouraging, but so far the development phase of these devices is not yet completed
The average responsive quantum efficiency of GEC/EEV P8603A front-illuminated epitaxial CCDs has ... more The average responsive quantum efficiency of GEC/EEV P8603A front-illuminated epitaxial CCDs has been increased to ≅26% in the spectral range 300 - 400 nm by coating the surface of the chips with a fluorescent plastic film. The composition of the dye mixture and the method of application are given. One of these coated chips has been successfully used with a Boller & Chivens spectrograph mounted on the 2.2 m telescope at La Silla. The system efficiency was 1 photon/sec/Å for a star of m320 = 13 and m350 = 13.9 respectively. Calibrated spectra of the nucleus of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3783 and of the central star of the planetary nebula NGC 5882 are presented.
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, 2012
ABSTRACT The 24 IFU from MUSE are equipped with 4K x 4K CCD detectors which are operated at cryog... more ABSTRACT The 24 IFU from MUSE are equipped with 4K x 4K CCD detectors which are operated at cryogenic temperature around 160 K. The large size of the chip combined with a rather fast camera (F/2) impose strong positioning constrains. The sensitive surface should remain in an angular envelope of less than 30 arc sec in both directions. The ambitious goal of having the same spectrum format on every detector imposes also a very accurate positioning in the image plane. The central pixel has to be located in a square smaller 50 microns relative to the external references. The first part of the paper describes the mechanical design of the detector head. We concentrate on the various aspects of the design with its very complex interfaces. The opto-mechanical concept is presented with an emphasis on the robustness and reliability. We present also the necessary steps for the extreme optimization of the cryogenic performance of this compact design driven with a permanent view of the production in series. The techniques and procedures developed in order to meet and verify the very tight positioning requirements are described in a second part. Then the 24 fully assembled systems undergo a system verification using one of the MUSE spectrographs. These tests include a focus series, the determination of the PSF across the chip and a subsequent calculation of the tip/tilt and shift rotation of the detector versus the optical axis.
Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy IV, 2010
MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument developed for ESO (Eur... more MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument developed for ESO (European Southern Observatory) and will be assembled to the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in 2012. The MUSE instrument can simultaneously record 90.000 spectra in the visible wavelength range (465-930nm), across a 1*1arcmin2 field of view, thanks to 24 identical Integral Field Units (IFU). A collaboration of 7
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III, 2010
Summary: The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second-generation VLT panoramic integr... more Summary: The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second-generation VLT panoramic integral-field spectrograph currently in manufacturing, assembly and integration phase. MUSE has a field of 1x1 arcmin2 sampled at 0.2x0.2 arcsec2 and is assisted by the VLT ground layer adaptive optics ESO facility using four laser guide stars. The instrument is a large assembly of 24 identical high performance
Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy IV, 2010
MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument developed for ESO (Eur... more MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument developed for ESO (European Southern Observatory) to be installed on the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in year 2012. The MUSE project is supported by a European consortium of 7 institutes. After a successful Final Design Review the project is now facing a turning point which consist in shifting from design
Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy V, 2012
ABSTRACT MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument built for ESO... more ABSTRACT MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) is a second generation instrument built for ESO (European Southern Observatory) to be installed in Chile on the VLT (Very Large Telescope). The MUSE project is supported by a European consortium of 7 institutes. After the critical turning point of shifting from the design to the manufacturing phase, the MUSE project has now completed the realization of its different sub-systems and should finalize its global integration and test in Europe. To arrive to this point many challenges had to be overcome, many technical difficulties, non compliances or procurements delays which seemed at the time overwhelming. Now is the time to face the results of our organization, of our strategy, of our choices. Now is the time to face the reality of the MUSE instrument. During the design phase a plan was provided by the project management in order to achieve the realization of the MUSE instrument in specification, time and cost. This critical moment in the project life when the instrument takes shape and reality is the opportunity to look not only at the outcome but also to see how well we followed the original plan, what had to be changed or adapted and what should have been.
The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer MUSE [MUSE public web site: http://muse. univ-lyon1. fr] is... more The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer MUSE [MUSE public web site: http://muse. univ-lyon1. fr] is one of the second generation VLT instruments. MUSE is a wide-field optical integral field spectrograph operating in the visible wavelength range with improved spatial ...
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV, 2012
ABSTRACT MUSE with its 24 detectors distributed over an eight square meter vertical area was requ... more ABSTRACT MUSE with its 24 detectors distributed over an eight square meter vertical area was requiring a well engineered and extremely reliable cryogenic system. The solution should also use a technology proven to be compatible with the very high sensitivity of the VLT interferometer. A short introduction reviews the various available technologies to cool these 24 chips down to 160 K. The first part of the paper presents the selected concept insisting on the various advantages offered by LN2. In addition to the purely vacuum and cryogenic aspects we highlight some of the most interesting features given by the control system based on a PLC.
Second Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes, 2004
Layer Oriented represented in the last few years a new and promising aproach to solve the problem... more Layer Oriented represented in the last few years a new and promising aproach to solve the problems related to the limited field of view achieved by classical Adaptive Optics systems. It is basically a different approach to multi conjugate adaptive optics, in which pupil plane wavefront sensors (like the pyramid one) are conjugated to the same altitudes as the deformable mirrors. Each wavefront sensor is independently driving its conjugated deformable mirror thus simplifying strongly the complexity of the wavefront computers used to reconstruct the deformations and drive the mirror themselves, fact that can become very important in the case of extremely large telescopes where the complexity is a serious issue. The fact of using pupil plane wavefront sensors allow for optical co-addition of the light at the level of the detector thus increasing the SNR of the system and permitting the usage of faint stars, improving the efficiency of the wavefront sensor. Furthermore if coupled to the Pyramid wavefront sensor (because of its high sensitivity), this technique is actually peforming a very efficient usage of the light leading to the expectation that, even by using only natural guide stars, a good sky coverage can be achieved, above all in the case of giant telescopes. These are the main reasons for which in the last two years several projects decided to make MCAO systems based on the Layer Oriented technique. This is the case of MAD (an MCAO demonstrator that ESO is building with one wavefront sensing channel based on the Layer Oriented concept) and NIRVANA (an instrument for LBT). Few months ago we built and successfully tested a first prototype of a layer oriented wavefront sensor and experiments and demonstrations on the sky are foreseen even before the effective first light of the above mentioned instruments. The current situation of all these projects is presented, including the extensive laboratory testing and the on-going experiments on the sky.
Abstract: Progress in FPGA technology has made it possible to build a very compact, versatile, lo... more Abstract: Progress in FPGA technology has made it possible to build a very compact, versatile, low power detector array controller based on high speed serial link technology. All data and communication transfers run between back-end and front-end, and within the ...
The European Southern Observatory together with external research Institutes is building a Multi-... more The European Southern Observatory together with external research Institutes is building a Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) to perform wide field of view adaptive optics correction. The aim of MAD is to demonstrate on the sky the feasibility of the MCAO technique and to evaluate all the critical aspects in building such kind of instrument in the framework of both
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy V, 2014
ABSTRACT CUBES is a high-efficiency, medium-resolution (R ≃ 20, 000) spectrograph dedicated to th... more ABSTRACT CUBES is a high-efficiency, medium-resolution (R ≃ 20, 000) spectrograph dedicated to the “ground based UV” (approximately the wavelength range from 300 to 400nm) destined for the Cassegrain focus of one of ESO’s VLT unit telescopes in 2018/19. The CUBES project is a joint venture between ESO and Instituto de Astronomia, Geof´ısica e Ciˆencias Atmosf´ericas (IAG) at the Universidade de S˜ao Paulo and the Brazilian Laborat´orio Nacional de Astrofs´ıca (LNA). CUBES will provide access to a wealth of new and relevant information for stellar as well as extra-galactic sources. Principle science cases include the study of heavy elements in metal-poor stars, the direct determination of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen abundances by study of molecular bands in the UV range and the determination of the Beryllium abundance as well as the study of active galactic nuclei and the inter-galactic medium. With a streamlined modern instrument design, high efficiency dispersing elements and UV-sensitive detectors, it will enable a significant gain in sensitivity over existing ground based medium-high resolution spectrographs enabling vastly increased sample sizes accessible to the astronomical community. We present here a brief overview of the project, introducing the science cases that drive the design and discussing the design options and technological challenges.
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Papers by Roland Reiss