SDSS-V local volume mapper instrument: Overview and status

Nicholas P. Konidaris, Niv Drory, Cynthia S. Froning, Anthony Hebert, Pavan Bilgi, Guillermo A. Blanc, Alicia E. Lanz, Charles L. Hull, Juna A. Kollmeier, Solange Ramirez, Stefanie Wachter, Kathryn Kreckel, Soojong Pak, Eric Pellegrini, Andr'es Almeida, Scott Case, Ross Zhelem, Tobias Feger, Jon Lawrence, Michael LesserTom Herbst, Jose Sanchez-Gallego, Matthew A. Bershady, Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay, Andrew Hauser, Michael Smith, Marsha J. Wolf, Renbin Yan

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) is an all-sky spectroscopic survey of >6 million objects, designed to decode the history of the Milky Way, reveal the inner workings of stars, investigate the origin of solar systems, and track the growth of supermassive black holes across the Universe. The Local Volume Mapper (LVM) is a facility designed to provide a contiguous 2,500 deg2 integral-field survey over a 3.5 year period from Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. In this paper we provide an overview and status update for the LVM instrument (hereafter LVM-I). Each integral-field unit's spaxel probes linear scales that are sub-parsec (Milky Way) to ∼10 pc (Magellanic Clouds) which is accomplished with an angular diameter of 36.9". LVM's spectral resolution is R = λ/∆λ ∼ 4, 000 which probes velocities of 33 kms-1 (1 σ) from 365 nm to 950 nm. LVM uses four 16-cm telescopes feeding three spectrographs. One telescope carries the bulk of the science load with ∼1,800 fibers coupled to the field via a pair of lenslet arrays, two telescopes are used to measure the night sky spectra in fields that flank the science field, and a fourth telescope contemporaneously monitors bright standard stars to determine atmospheric extinction. We expect LVM-I to deliver percent-level precision on important line ratios down to a few Rayleigh. The three spectrographs are being built by Winlight corporation in France based on those for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). In this paper we present the high-level system design of LVM-I including the lenslet-coupled fiber IFUs, telescopes, guiding+acquisition system, calibration systems, enclosures, and spectrographs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationGround-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII
EditorsChristopher J. Evans, Julia J. Bryant, Kentaro Motohara
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Electronic)9781510636811
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
EventGround-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII 2020 - Virtual, Online, United States
Duration: Dec 14 2020Dec 22 2020

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume11447

Conference

ConferenceGround-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Online
Period12/14/2012/22/20

Keywords

  • Instrumentation: integral field
  • Instrumentation: spectrographs
  • Techniques: spectroscopic

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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