The fifth Sloan Digital Sky Survey Local Volume Mapper (LVM) is a wide-field integral field unit survey that uses an array of four 160 mm fixed telescopes with siderostats to minimize the number of moving parts. An individual telescope observes the science or calibration field independently and is synchronized with the science exposure. We developed the LVM Acquisition and Guiding Package (LVMAGP)-optimized telescope control software program for LVM observations, which can simultaneously control four focusers, three K-mirrors, one fiber selector, four mounts (siderostats), and seven guide cameras. This software is built on a hierarchical architecture and the SDSS framework and provides three key sequences: autofocus, field acquisition, and autoguide. We designed and fabricated a proto-model siderostat to test the telescope pointing model and LVMAGP software. The mirrors of the proto-model were designed as an isogrid open-back type, which reduced the weight by 46% and enabled reaching thermal equilibrium quickly. In addition, deflection due to bolting torque, self-gravity, and thermal deformation was simulated, and the maximum scatter of the pointing model induced by the tilt of optomechanics was predicted to be 4′.4, which can be compensated for by the field acquisition sequence. We performed a real sky test of LVMAGP with the proto-model siderostat and obtained field acquisition and autoguide accuracies of 0″.38 and 1″.5, respectively. It met all requirements except for the autoguide specification, which will be resolved by more precise alignment among the hardware components at Las Campanas Observatory.
We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Local Volume Mapper Instrument (LVM-I) construction, testing, and initial performance. The facility is designed to produce the first integral map of thousands of degrees of the Southern sky. The map will cover spectra from bluer than [O II] to 980 nm with a dispersion of over R = Δλ/λ > 4, 000 at Hα wavelength. Each spaxel will have a pitch of ∼35′′, and the survey will be conducted using four integral field units (IFUs) with an instantaneous field of view of 530 arcmin2. The LVM facility is designed to achieve the required sub-Rayleigh spectroscopy over large sky areas with outstanding spectrophotometric accuracy and precision. LVM-I is designed to produce this unique dataset using four siderostats on commercial mounts. The four beams are fed into 16-cm-diameter f/11.4 apochromatic objectives, and the sky is derotated with K mirrors. These telescopes produce an image of the field onto both guider cameras and a lenslet array. The array reimages the field at f/3.7 onto 107-micron-diameter fibers. Blue throughput is maximized with a short 18.5-m fiber run from the IFUs to the spectrographs. The fibers are reconfigured inside a splicing box to distribute the fibers from the four telescopes to three spectrographs. The spectrographs are near-copies of the Dark Energy Survey three-band f/1.7 spectrographs, which deliver sharp images over the entire chromatic range. Nine STA charge-coupled devices (CCDs), cooled with liquid-nitrogen dewars, are used for the survey. The LVM-I is controlled with custom Python software and distributed over various computers using power-over-ethernet networking. The system is housed in a custom enclosure with a roll-off roof to grant access to the sky. The enclosure allows all four telescopes to point all over the sky and measure the transmissivity of the atmosphere and the sky background. Some of the first-light data products are highlighted here.
The optical design of a 400 mm-aperture, f/3, three-mirror freeform telescope for the MESSIER surveyor mission is presented. PhoSim PSF (Point Spread Function) simulations of the linear astigmatism-free optical design and mirror surfaces’ microroughness modeling indicate good manufacturability.
The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) project will provide multi-object spectroscopy in the optical and near-infrared bands using an 11.25-m aperture telescope, repurposing the original Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope site. MSE will observe 4332 objects per single exposure with a field of view of 1.5 square degrees, utilizing two spectrographs with low-moderate (R∼3000, 6000) and high (R≈30,000) spectral resolution. In general, an exposure time calculator (ETC) is used to estimate the performance of an observing system by calculating the signal- to-noise ratio (S/N) and exposure time. We present the design of the MSE ETC, which has four calculation modes (S/N, exposure time, S/N trend with wavelength, and S/N trend with magnitude) and incorporates the MSE system requirements as specified in the conceptual design. The MSE ETC currently allows for user-defined inputs of the target AB magnitude, water vapor, air mass, and sky brightness AB magnitude (additional user inputs can be provided depending on the computational mode). The ETC is built using Python 3.7 and features a graphical user interface that allows for cross-platform use. The development process of the ETC software follows an Agile methodology and utilizes the unified modeling language diagrams to visualize the software architecture. We also describe the testing and verification of the MSE ETC.
KEYWORDS: Spectrographs, Control software, Software development, Charge-coupled devices, Camera shutters, Design and modelling, Control systems, Computer architecture, Data acquisition, Switches
Local Volume Mapper Spectrograph Control Package (LVMSCP) is the software that controls three spectrographs to acquire science spectral data cubes automatically. The software architecture design based on Python 3.9 follows a hierarchical structure of Actors, the unit that controls each piece of hardware. We used the software framework Codified Likeness Utility to implement each Actor. The Actors communicate with each other through RabbitMQ, which implements the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol. The Actor applies asynchronous programming with non-blocking procedures as the three spectrographs should operate simultaneously. For the requirement of incremental code change and management in the collaboration of the developers, we adopted the SDSS Github Action, which supports continuous integration/continuous deployment. As a result, unit testing with Pytest tested the individual components of the software, respectively, and lab testing with LVMSCP provided the spectra data for the spectrograph calibration. The LVMSCP provides the application programming interface to the Robotic Observation Package to fulfill the required scientific survey execution for the spectrographs.
The conventional on-axis reflective systems suffer from a diffraction effect on the Point Spread Function (PSF) due to the secondary mirror obscuration. Meanwhile, the unobscured off-axis reflective systems’ imaging performance may be impacted by linear astigmatism aberration. The Linear Astigmatism Free-Three Mirror System (LAF-TMS) is a confocal off-axis reflective system that eliminates linear astigmatism and enables a wide Field of View (FoV). We present an enhanced design of LAF-TMS, called ”wide-wide”, which has an aperture of D=40mm, an effective focal length of f=75mm, and a wide FoV of 8.25°(Horizontal) × 6.21°(V ertical) combined with a wide spectral bandwidth capability suitable for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications. To evaluate the performance of this compact and fast optical system design, we use the Photon Simulator (PhoSim) to model physically accurate PSF under different conditions of the mirror surface, mechanical environment, and atmosphere. As a benchmark, we compare and analyze the PhoSim PSF results with other ray tracing software such as Zemax and CodeV. Additionally, PhoSim is capable of simulating infrared spectral imaging cases with a user-defined Spectral Energy Distribution (SED), intensity, and emissivity of each pixel. The comprehensive simulation results demonstrate the high performance of the LAF-TMS with a wide-wide FoV and multispectral capabilities.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) is an all-sky, multi-epoch spectroscopic survey designed to decode the stellar evolution of the Milky Way, reveal the inner workings of stars, study the interstellar medium in the Local Volume of galaxies, and track the growth of supermassive black holes across the Universe. SDSS-V presents significant innovations in hardware and instrumentation, with the introduction of a new Focal Plane System instrument that enables multi-object spectroscopy using an array of 500 robotic fibre positioners, and the development of a new robotic observatory for the Local Volume Mapper program. These advances in instrumentation and operations necessitate a similarly evolved computing and software architecture to ensure survey efficiency and to take advantage of the improvements in software engineering and development. In this paper we present the cyberinfrastructure of the SDSS project with focus on the changes introduced since the previous iteration of the project, the adoption of new technologies, and the lessons learned in this process.
Sloan Digital Sky Survey fifth-generation (SDSS-V) Local Volume Mapper (LVM) is a wide-field IFU survey that uses an array of four 160 mm telescopes. It provides IFU spectra over the optical range with R ∼ 4,000 to reveal the inner components of galaxies and the evolution of the universe. Each telescope observes the science field or the calibration field independently, but all of them should be simultaneously synchronized with the science exposure. To minimize the moving parts, the LVM adopted the siderostat design with a field derotator. We designed the optimized control software for our LVM observation, lvmagp, which controls four focusers, three K-mirror derotators, one fiber selector, four mounts (siderostats), and seven guide cameras. It was built on its owen user interface and messaging protocol called actor and clu based on asynchronous programming. The lvmagp provides three key sequences: autofocus sequence, field acquisition sequence, and autoguide sequence. Also, we designed and fabricated the proto-model siderostat for the software test. The real sky test was made with proto-model siderostat, and the lvmagp showed arcsecond-level field acquisition and autoguide accuracy.
We developed control software for an enclosure system of the SDSS-V Local Volume Mapper (LVM) which provides a contiguous 2,500 deg2 integral-field survey. The LVM enclosure, located at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, is a building that hosts the LVM instruments (LVM-I). The enclosure system consists of four main systems: 1) a roll-off dome, 2) building lights, 3) a Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, and 4) a safety system. Two Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) as middleware software directly operate complex mechanisms of the dome and the HVAC via the Modbus protocol. The LVMECP is implemented by Python 3.9 following the SDSS software framework which adopted a protocol, called CLU, with message passing based on the RabbitMQ and Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP). Also, we applied asynchronous programming to our system to process multiple requests simultaneously. The Dome PLC system remotely sends commands for the operation of a roll-off dome and enclosure lights. The HVAC PLC system keeps track of changing environmental values of the HVAC system in real-time. This software provides observers with remote access by high-level commands.
The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) will convert the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) into an 11.25-m primary aperture telescope with a 1.5 square degrees field-of-view at the prime focus. It will produce multi-object spectroscopy with a suite of low (R∼3,000), moderate (R∼6,000), and high (R∼40,000) spectral resolution spectrographs in optical and near-infrared bands that are capable of detecting over 4,000 objects per pointing. Generally, an exposure time calculator (ETC) should simulate a system performance by computing a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and exposure time based on parameters such as a target magnitude, a total throughput of the system, and sky conditions, etc. The ETC that we have developed for MSE has individual computation modes for SNR, exposure time, SNR as a function of AB magnitude, and SNR as a function of wavelength. The code is based on an agile development methodology and allows for a variety of user input. Users must select either LR, MR, or HR spectral resolution settings in order to pull the associated MSE instrument parameters. Additionally, users must specify the target and background sky magnitudes (and have the ability to alter the default airmass and water vapor values). The software is developed with Python 3.7, and Tkinter graphical user interface is implemented to facilitate cross-platform use. In this paper, we present the logic structure and various functionalities of our MSE-ETC, including a software design and a demonstration.
The Local Volume Mapper (LVM) project in the fifth iteration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-Ⅴ) will produce large integral-field spectroscopic survey data to understand the physical conditions of the interstellar medium in the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, and other local-volume galaxies. We developed the Local Volume Mapper Spectrograph Control Package (LVMSCP) which controls the instruments for the operation of the spectrograph. We use the new SDSS message passing protocol CLU (Codified Likeness Utility) for the interaction, based on the RabbitMQ that implemented the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP). Also, asynchronous programming with non-blocking procedures is applied for the package since three spectrographs should be operated simultaneously. The software is implemented based on Python 3.9, and will provide the Application Programming Interface (API) to the Robotic Observation Package (ROP) for the integrated observation.
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