Future Instruments Schedule

CASCA 2013 Schedule for Future Instruments

2013-05-29T11:00
Future Instruments
Location: Hennings 200 Chair: Gary Hinshaw
1100 Grandmont, Frederic SITELLE, a Few Months to First Light at CFHT
  SITELLE is a next generation instrument to be installed at CFHT before the end of this year. It is currently under assembly at four different sites: ABB, Université Laval, Université de Montreal and CFHT. Final integration of major sub-systems will take place at ABB during the summer with end to end instrument testing scheduled for fall. I will present the latest development status of the instrument and provide an update on the expected performances based on characterisation data acquired to date on sub-assemblies. This will be a great opportunity to take a look inside this powerful IFU soon available to the Canadian community as a facility instrument.
1115 Cote, Patrick Science with the Next Generation CFHT
  The Next Generation CFHT (ngCFHT) is a proposal to redevelop the Canada France Hawaii Telescope by replacing the existing 3.6m facility with a 10m, segmented mirror telescope equipped with a dedicated wide-field, highly multiplexed fiber spectrograph. In this talk I will briefly review the science drivers for this facility identified during a recently concluded, two-year feasibility study. I will also summarize the current development status of the project, and report on a dedicated ngCFHT workshop held in Hilo, Hawaii in March 2013.
1130 Steinbring, Eric Eureka! Astronomy from the Arctic as well as Antarctic
  A recent development in astronomy from the Antarctic is the Chinese-led Kunlun Base near Dome A at 80 degrees South latitude. At 80 degrees North latitude, astronomy is also underway at Eureka on Ellesmere Island, providing access to many of those good qualities that first drew attention to extreme southern latitudes, and with a few special advantages. In this talk, I will compare and contrast Arctic and Antarctic sites. I summarise polar astronomy projects in the submillimetre through ultraviolet either ongoing or planned, and use these together with recent site-testing results near Eureka to illustrate some of the developing scientific prospects for the Far North in a worldwide context.
1145 Rowlands, Neil Completion of the FGS/NIRISS Instrument for JWST
  The flight model Fine Guidance Sensor / Near-Infrared Imager & Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS) has successfully completed its performance verification tests. The instruments have been delivered to NASA Goddard Spaceflight Centre for integration to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Highlights from the FGS/NIRISS cryogenic test campaign are described. In particular key guider performance test results are presented; we describe the noise equivalent angle (NEA) performance as a function of guide star magnitude for the tracking and fine guidance modes. Tracking mode must be able to follow a guide star moving across the field of view of either guider, primarily to allow the Observatory line of sight to settle in advance of the fine guidance mode. FGS tracking mode will also be used for JWST’s moving target observing mode. The NEA performance vs guide star magnitude in fine guidance mode is presented; demonstrating that the FGS-Guiders will provide the Observatory with the pointing precision required to achieve the ultimate image quality of the JWST Observatory.
1200 Chapman, Scott The CCAT XSPEC instrument, and submm-wave line surveys for distant galaxies
  Sub-mm surveys for molecular and fine structure lines in the early Universe are revolutionising our understanding of the molecular ISM in distant galaxies. Blind surveys for lines have already been successfully conducted with IRAM, JVLA, GBT, CARMA, and ALMA. I will describe my group's sub-mm galaxy (SMG) line surveys in several projects: the South Pole Telescope, ALMA-Extended Chandra Deep Field, and our new Galaxy Overdensity Gas Survey. The XSPEC instrument is a multi-object, broad band spectrograph being designed for the CCAT 25m submillimeter-wave telescope. XSPEC will perform the widest field and deepest surveys for fine structure lines, with a multitude of applications. Our lab at Dalhousie is designing and prototyping the multi-object units for XSPEC, and we are working with Caltech to field an end-to-end prototype instrument for immediate deployment.
1215 Naylor, David SAFARI: Imaging Spectrometer for the SPICA space observatory
  Building on the success of ESA's Herschel space observatory, the Japanese SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics, SPICA, a 3 m class telescope cooled to ~ 6 K, will provide astronomers with the extremely low background necessary to explore the far-infrared universe. Thermal emission will be six orders of magnitude less than on the JWST and Herschel. A consortium of European and Canadian institutes has been established to design and implement the SpicA FAR infrared Instrument SAFARI, an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer optimized to exploit the low background provided by SPICA. The sensitivity of SAFARI will be an impressive two orders of magnitude better than the PACS instrument on Herschel, allowing it extend the pioneering PACS measurements to higher redshift. The scientific goals and design of SAFARI will be presented.