This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 7735, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and the Conference Committee listing.

In this paper we describe both recently completed instrumentation projects and our current development efforts in the context of the Observatory's science driven strategic plan which seeks to address key questions in observational astronomy for extra-galactic, Galactic, and planetary science with both seeing limited capabilities and high angular resolution adaptive optics capabilities. This paper will review recently completed projects as well as new instruments in development including MOSFIRE, a near IR multi-object spectrograph nearing completion, a new seeing limited integral field spectrograph for the visible wavelength range called the Keck Cosmic Web Imager, and the Keck Next Generation Adaptive Optics facility and its first light science instrument DAVINCI.

The first-generation instrument development programme for the VLT/I has now come to a close. The delivered instruments which have served the astronomical community since first light at Paranal in 1998, have provided astronomers with general purpose capabilities covering the available wavelength range from the UV to mid infrared. The second-generation programme has now begun with delivery of X-shooter, and a further six new instruments (SPHERE, MUSE, KMOS, ESPRESSO, GRAVITY, MATISSE) are under construction, marking a transition to more specialised scientific capabilities designed for a more limited but very ambitious set of science goals. In addition, instrumentation at La Silla telescopes continues to be effective in producing scientific results, especially through the planet-finder HARPS on the 3.6m. Future plans should see a transfer of resources to E-ELT instrument construction while new instrument development for the VLT will continue, but at a slower pace.

Developing new instruments and upgrading existing instruments has been an important aspect of Subaru telescope's operation. Seven facility instruments and two visiting instruments are currently under use. Among them HiCIAO, a coronagraphic imager combined with adaptive optics (AO188), has started its full operation in the 2nd semester of 2009. We are using HiCIAO for a large program (SEEDS) to find new exo-planets and comprehend planet formation from proto-planetary disks. To achieve higher contrast, a new coronagraph attachment with an extreme AO (SCExAO) will be installed as a PI instrument. AO188 is also used with the IRCS in natural guide star mode. Its laser guide star mode is currently commissioning. The Fibre multi-object spectrograph (FMOS), which is comprised of 400 fibers placed at the prime focus and delivers 0.9-1.8um spectra, will be partly offered to open use from mid 2010. Hyper Suprime-Cam, the wide-field upgrade (1.5 deg FoV) of the Suprime-Cam, is under development for its first light in 2011. Development of an immersion grating has taken place for upgrading the IRCS with a high-resolution infrared spectrograph.

The tenth anniversary of Gemini Observatory operation provides a convenient reference point to reflect on the past, present, and future of the instrumentation program. The Observatory will soon meet a significant milestone: the last batch of instruments from the first three generations of instrumentation development will be commissioned by the end of 2011. This will represent a revolution for Gemini-South, which will have a suite of new or upgraded, state of the art instruments. Included in this suite will be extreme and multi-conjugate adaptive optics systems, new infrared imagers and multi-object spectrographs, and state of the art CCD detectors. The Observatory is on the cusp of a new era with the fourth generation of instrumentation. While the past represented building a whole new observatory, the future represents renewal and reinvestment, with plans for a new high-resolution optical spectrograph, new acquisition and guide units, upgraded and refurbished instruments, and improved methods for developing Gemini instrumentation.

An overview of instrumentation for the Large Binocular Telescope is presented. Optical instrumentation includes the Large Binocular Camera (LBC), a pair of wide-field (27 × 27) mosaic CCD imagers at the prime focus, and the Multi-Object Double Spectrograph (MODS), a pair of dual-beam blue-red optimized long-slit spectrographs mounted at the straight-through F/15 Gregorian focus incorporating multiple slit masks for multi-object spectroscopy over a 6 field and spectral resolutions of up to 8000. Infrared instrumentation includes the LBT Near-IR Spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research (LUCIFER), a modular near-infrared (0.9-2.5 μm) imager and spectrograph pair mounted at a bent interior focal station and designed for seeing-limited (FOV: 4 × 4) imaging, long-slit spectroscopy, and multi-object spectroscopy utilizing cooled slit masks and diffraction limited (FOV: 0.5 × 0.5) imaging and long-slit spectroscopy. Strategic instruments under development for the remaining two combined focal stations include an interferometric cryogenic beam combiner with near-infrared and thermal-infrared instruments for Fizeau imaging and nulling interferometry (LBTI) and an optical bench near-infrared beam combiner utilizing multi-conjugate adaptive optics for high angular resolution and sensitivity (LINC-NIRVANA). In addition, a fiber-fed bench spectrograph (PEPSI) capable of ultra high resolution spectroscopy and spectropolarimetry (R = 40,000-300,000) will be available as a principal investigator instrument. The availability of all these instruments mounted simultaneously on the LBT permits unique science, flexible scheduling, and improved operational support. Over the past two years the LBC and the first LUCIFER instrument have been brought into routine scientific operation and MODS1 commissioning is set to begin in the fall of 2010.

In the ten years since the converted 6.5m MMT was dedicated the observatory has built up an impressive suite of instrumentation to compliment the three interchangeable secondary mirrors. This review paper presents an up-to-date perspective on all the capabilities of our full range of instrumentation, highlighting newly commissioned instruments (the MMT and Magellan InfraRed Spectrograph (MMIRS), an infrared spectrograph) and new modes or upgrades for established instruments (such as; Red Channel, the MMT's workhorse spectrograph, Hectochelle, an optical fiber-fed, multi-object spectrograph and the AO instruments CLIO, a 5 micron camera and BLINC, a mid-infrared camera). The MMT's pioneering adaptive secondary mirror can be used with both natural guide stars (NGS) or with a Rayleigh laser guide star (LGS) system. The LGS has recently demonstrated wide-field partial compensation with ground layer adaptive optics and here we present progress to date. Finally, we report on the start of a project to investigate how the instrument suite has contributed to the science productivity the MMT over the last 10 years.

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 integral field units, each one composed of an advanced image slicer, a spectrograph and a 4kx4k detector. In this paper we review the progress of the manufacturing and report the performance achieved with the first integral field unit.

The AAO is building an optical high resolution multi-object spectrograph for the AAT for Galactic Archaeology. The instrument has undergone significant design revision over that presented at the 2008 Marseilles SPIE meeting. The current design is a 4-channel VPH-grating based spectrograph providing a nominal spectral resolving power of 28,000 and a high-resolution mode of 45,000 with the use of a slit mask. The total spectral coverage is about 1000 Angstroms for up to 392 simultaneous targets within the 2 degree field of view. Major challenges in the design include the mechanical stability, grating and dichroic efficiencies, and fibre slit relay implementation. An overview of the current design and discussion of these challenges is presented.

The Multi-Object Double Spectrographs (MODS) are two identical high-throughput optical low- to medium-resolution CCD spectrometers being deployed at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). Operating in the 340-1000nm range, they use a large dichroic to split light into separately-optimized red and blue channels that feature reflective collimators and decentered Maksutov-Schmidt cameras with monolithic 8×3K CCD detectors. A parallel infrared laser closed-loop image motion compensation system nulls spectrograph flexure giving it high calibration stability. The two MODS instruments may be operated together with digital data combination as a single instrument giving the LBT an effective aperture of 11.8-meter, or separately configured to flexibly use the twin 8.4-meter apertures. This paper describes the properties and performance of the completed MODS1 instrument. MODS1 was delivered to LBT in May 2010 and is being prepared for first-light in September 2010.

We describe the concept of a new instrument for the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope (CFHT), SITELLE (Spectromètre Imageur à Transformée de Fourier pour l'Etude en Long et en Large de raies d'Emission), as well as a science case and a technical study of its preliminary design. SITELLE will be an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer capable of obtaining the visible (350 nm - 950 nm) spectrum of every source of light in a field of view of 15 arcminutes, with 100% spatial coverage and a spectral resolution ranging from R = 1 (deep panchromatic image) to R = 10⁴ (for gas dynamics). SITELLE will cover a field of view 100 to 1000 times larger than traditional integral field spectrographs, such as GMOS-IFU on Gemini or the future MUSE on the VLT. It is a legacy from BEAR, the first imaging FTS installed on the CFHT and the direct successor of SpIOMM, a similar instrument attached to the 1.6-m telescope of the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic in Québec. SITELLE will be used to study the structure and kinematics of HII regions and ejecta around evolved stars in the Milky Way, emission-line stars in clusters, abundances in nearby gas-rich galaxies, and the star formation rate in distant galaxies.

The 16 low resolution spectrographs (LRS) have been successfully commissioned for the LAMOST. The LRS design employs a dual-beamed and bench-mounted, with large-beamed, fast Schmidt cameras and Volume Phase Holographic (VPH) transmission gratings. The design wavelength range is 370-900nm, at resolutions of R=1000and R=10000. Each spectrograph is fed by 250 fibers with 320 micron in diameter (corresponding 3.3 arcsec), composed of one F/4 Schmidt collimator, a dichroic beam-splitter, four VPH gratings, articulating Schmidt cameras that are optimized at blue band (370-590 nm) and red band (570-900 nm), and field lens near the focal plane service as the vacuum window of CCD detector cryogenic head. In this paper, we present the testing result of the LRS on the image quality, spectra resolution, efficiency and observing spectra.

The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration is building the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square degree, 520 Megapixel CCD camera which will be mounted on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at CTIO. DECam will be used to perform the 5000 sq. deg. Dark Energy Survey with 30% of the telescope time over a 5 year period. During the remainder of the time, and after the survey, DECam will be available as a community instrument. Construction of DECam is well underway. Integration and testing of the major system components has already begun at Fermilab and the collaborating institutions.

We present the scientific motivations for GYES: a high multiplex (of the order of several hundred), high resolution (about 20 000), spectrograph to be placed at the prime focus of the CFHT. The main purpose of such an instrument is to conduct a spectroscopic survey complementary to the Gaia mission. The final Gaia catalogue (expected around 2020) will provide accurate distances, proper motions and spectrophotometry for all the stars down to a magnitude of 20. The spectroscopic instrument on board the Gaia satellite will provide intermediate resolution (R=11 500) spectra for stars down to the 17th magnitude. For the fainter stars there will be no radial velocity information. For all the stars the chemical information will be limited to a few species. A multifibre spectrograph at the prime focus of the CFHT will be able to provide the high resolution spectra for stars fainter than 13th magnitude, needed to obtain both accurate radial velocities and detailed chemical abundances. The possible use of GYES will not be limited to Gaia complementary surveys and we here describe the potentialities of such an instrument. We describe here how the scientific drivers are translated into technical requirements. The results of our on-going feasibility study are described in an accompanying poster.

ESPRESSO, the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, will combine the efficiency of modern echelle spectrograph design with extreme radial-velocity precision. It will be installed on ESO's VLT in order to achieve a gain of two magnitudes with respect to its predecessor HARPS, and the instrumental radialvelocity precision will be improved to reach cm/s level. Thanks to its characteristics and the ability of combining incoherently the light of 4 large telescopes, ESPRESSO will offer new possibilities in various fields of astronomy. The main scientific objectives will be the search and characterization of rocky exoplanets in the habitable zone of quiet, nearby G to M-dwarfs, and the analysis of the variability of fundamental physical constants. We will present the ambitious scientific objectives, the capabilities of ESPRESSO, and the technical solutions of this challenging project.

The One Degree Imager will be the future flagship instrument at the WIYN 3.5m observatory, once commissioned in 2011. With a 1 Gigapixel focal plane of Orthogonal Transfer Array CCD devices, ODI will be the most advanced optical imager with open community access in the Northern Hemisphere. In this talk we will summarize the progress since the last presentation of ODI at the SPIE 2008 meeting, focusing on optics procurement, instrument assembly and testing, and detector operations.

We report design, performance and early results from two of the Extremely High Precision Extrasolar Planet Tracker Instruments (EXPERT) as part of a global network for hunting for low mass planets in the next decade. EXPERT is a combination of a thermally compensated monolithic Michelson interferometer and a cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph for extremely high precision Doppler measurements for nearby bright stars (e.g., 1m/s for a V=8 solar type star in 15 min exposure). It has R=18,000 with a 72 micron slit and a simultaneous coverage of 390-694 nm. The commissioning results show that the instrument has already produced a Doppler precision of about 1 m/s for a solar type star with S/N~100 per pixel. The instrument has reached ~4 mK (P-V) temperature stability, ~1 mpsi pressure stability over a week and a total instrument throughput of ~30% at 550 nm from the fiber input to the detector. EXPERT also has a direct cross-dispersed echelle spectroscopy mode fed with 50 micron fibers. It has spectral resolution of R=27,000 and a simultaneous wavelength coverage of 390-1000 nm.

The 'Imaka project is a high-resolution wide-field imager proposed for the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope (CFHT) on Mauna Kea. 'Imaka takes advantage of two features of the optical turbulence above Mauna Kea: weak optical turbulence in the free-atmosphere and boundary layer turbulence which is highly confined within a surface layer tens of meters thick and or the telescope enclosures. The combination of the two allows a groundlayer adaptive optics system (GLAO) to routinely deliver an extremely-wide corrected field of view of one-degree at an excellent free-atmosphere seeing limit at visible wavelengths. In addition, populating the focal-plane with orthogonal-transfer CCDs provides a second level of image improvement on the free-atmosphere seeing and the residual GLAO correction. The impact of such an instrument covers a broad range of science and is a natural progression of CFHT's wide-field expertise.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a large aperture, wide-field facility designed to provide deep images of half the sky every few nights. There is only a single instrument on the telescope, a 9.6 square degree visible-band camera, which is mounted close to the secondary mirror, and points down toward the tertiary. The requirements of the LSST camera present substantial technical design challenges. To cover the entire 0.35 to 1 μm visible band, the camera incorporates an array of 189 over-depleted bulk silicon CCDs with 10 μm pixels. The CCDs are assembled into 3 x 3 "rafts", which are then mounted to a silicon carbide grid to achieve a total focal plane flatness of 15 μm p-v. The CCDs have 16 amplifiers per chip, enabling the entire 3.2 Gigapixel image to be read out in 2 seconds. Unlike previous astronomical cameras, a vast majority of the focal plane electronics are housed in the cryostat, which uses a mixed refrigerant Joule-Thompson system to maintain a -100ºC sensor temperature. The shutter mechanism uses a 3 blade stack design and a hall-effect sensor to achieve high resolution and uniformity. There are 5 filters stored in a carousel around the cryostat and the auto changer requires a dual guide system to control its position due to severe space constraints. This paper presents an overview of the current state of the camera design and development plan.

ESPRESSO, a very high-resolution, high-efficiency, ultra-high stability, fiber-fed, cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph located in the Combined-Coudé focus of the VLT, has been designed to detect exo-planets with unprecedented radial velocity accuracies of 10 cm/sec over 20 years period. To increase spectral resolution, an innovative pupil slicing technique has been adopted, based onto free-form optics. Anamorphism has been added to increase resolution while keeping the physical size of the echelle grating within reasonable limits. Anamorphic VPH grisms will help to decrease detector size, while maximizing efficiency and inter-order separation. Here we present a summary of the optical design of the spectrograph and of expected performances.

The Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS) consists of a baseline build of 150 identical spectrographs (arrayed as 75 units, each with a pair of spectrographs) fed by 33,600 fibers, each 1.5 arcsec diameter, deployed over the 22 arcminute field of the upgraded 10 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). The goal is to deploy 96 units. VIRUS has a fixed bandpass of 350-550 nm and resolving power R~700. VIRUS is the first example of industrial-scale replication applied to optical astronomy and is capable of spectral surveys of large areas of sky. The method of industrial replication, in which a relatively simple, inexpensive, unit spectrograph is copied in large numbers, offers significant savings of engineering effort, cost, and schedule when compared to traditional instruments. The main motivator for VIRUS is to map the evolution of dark energy for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX+) using 0.8M Lyman-α emitting galaxies as tracers. The full VIRUS array is due to be deployed in late 2011 and will provide a powerful new facility instrument for the HET, well suited to the survey niche of the telescope. VIRUS and HET will open up wide field surveys of the emission-line universe for the first time. We present the design, cost, and current status of VIRUS as it enters production, and review performance results from the VIRUS prototype. We also present lessons learned from our experience designing for volume production and look forward to the application of the VIRUS concept on future extremely large telescopes (ELTs).

We are designing the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) as a new facility instrument for the Keck II telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO). KCWI is based on the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI), an instrument that has recently had first light at the Hale Telescope. KCWI is a wide-field integral-field spectrograph (IFS) optimized for precision sky limited spectroscopy of low surface brightness phenomena. KCWI will feature high throughput, and flexibility in field of view (FOV), spatial sampling, bandpass, and spectral resolution. KCWI will provide full wavelength coverage (0.35 to 1.05 μm) using optimized blue and red channels. KCWI will provide a unique and complementary capability at WMKO (optical band integral field spectroscopy) that is directly connected to one of the Observatory's strategic goals (faint object, high precision spectroscopy), at a modest cost and on a competitive time scale, made possible by its simple concept and the prior demonstration of CWI.

We present the first integrated multimode photonic spectrograph, a device we call PIMMS #1. The device comprises a set of multimode fibres that convert to single-mode propagation using a matching set of photonic lanterns. These feed to a stack of cyclic array waveguides (AWGs) that illuminate a common detector. Such a device greatly reduces the size of an astronomical instrument at a fixed spectroscopic resolution. Remarkably, the PIMMS concept is largely independent of the telescope diameter, input focal ratio and entrance aperture - i.e. one size fits all! The instrument architecture can also exploit recent advances in astrophotonics (e.g. OH suppression fibres). We present a movie of the instrument's operation and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.

New multi-core imaging fibre bundles - hexabundles - being developed at the University of Sydney will provide simultaneous integral field spectroscopy for hundreds of celestial sources across a wide angular field. These are a natural progression from the use of single fibres in existing galaxy surveys. Hexabundles will allow us to address fundamental questions in astronomy without the biases introduced by a fixed entrance aperture. We have begun to consider instrument concepts that exploit hundreds of hexabundles over the widest possible field of view. To this end, we have characterised the performance of a 61-core fully fused hexabundle and 5 unfused bundles with 7 cores each. All fibres in bundles have 100 micron cores. In the fused bundle, the cores are distorted from a circular shape in order to achieve a higher fill fraction. The unfused bundles have circular cores and five different cladding thicknesses which affect the fill fraction. We compare the optical performance of all 6 bundles and find that the advantage of smaller interstitial holes (higher fill fraction) is outweighed by the increase in FRD, crosstalk and the poor optical performance caused by the deformation of the fibre cores. Uniformly high throughput and low cross-talk are essential for imaging faint astronomical targets with sufficient resolution to disentangle the dynamical structure. Devices already under development will have 100-200 unfused cores, although larger formats are feasible. The light-weight packaging of hexabundles is sufficiently flexible to allow existing robotic positioners to make use of them.

We describe the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI), a UV-VIS integral eld spectrograph designed for the Hale 200" telescope at the Palomar Observatory. CWI has been built specically for the observation of diuse radiation. The instrument eld of view is 60"40" with spectral resolving power of R5000 and seeing limited spatial resolution. It utilizes volume phase holographic gratings and is intended to cover the spectral range 3800A to 9500A with an instantaneous bandwidth of 450A. CWI saw rst light in July 2009, and conducted its rst successful scientic observations in May 2010.

The concept of segmenting the focal plane of an existing 8m class telescope in order to fill it with an array of several fast cameras has been developed further and in this work the status of an engineering program aimed to produce a design qualified for the construction, and to assess its cost estimates is presented. The original concept of just having simple cameras with all identical optical components other than a pupil plane corrector to remove the fixed aberrations at the off-axis field of a telescope has been extended to introduce a spectroscopic capability and to assess a trade-off between a very large number (of the order of thousand) of cameras with a small single Field of View with a smaller number of cameras able to compensate the aberration on a much larger Field of View with a combination of different optical elements and different ways to mount and align them. The scientific target of a few thousands multi-slit spectra over a Field of View of a few square degrees, combined with the ambition to mount this on an existing 8m class telescope makes the scientific rationale of such an instrument a very interesting one. In the paper we describe the different options for a possible optical design, the trade off between variations on the theme of the large segmentation and we describe briefly the way this kind of instrument can handle a multi-slit configuration. Finally, the feasibility of the components and a brief description of how the cost analysis is being performed are given. Perspectives on the construction of this spectrograph are given as well.

A mosaic of two 2k x 4k fully depleted, high resistivity CCD detectors was installed in the red channel of the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph for the Keck-I Telescope in June, 2009 replacing a monolithic Tektronix/SITe 2k x 2k CCD. These CCDs were fabricated at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and packaged and characterized by UCO/Lick Observatory. Major goals of the detector upgrade were increased throughput and reduced interference fringing at wavelengths beyond 800 nm, as well as improvements in the maintainability and serviceability of the instrument. We report on the main features of the design, the results of optimizing detector performance during integration and testing, as well as the throughput, sensitivity and performance of the instrument as characterized during commissioning.

Near-diffraction limited imaging and spectroscopy in the visible on large (8-10 meter) class telescopes has proved to be beyond the capabilities of current adaptive optics technologies, even when using laser guide stars. The need for high resolution visible imaging in any part of the sky suggests that a rather different approach is needed. This paper describes the results of simulations, experiments and astronomical observations that show that a combination of low order adaptive optic correction using a 4-field curvature sensor and fast Lucky Imaging strategies with a photon counting CCD camera systems should deliver 20-25 milliarcsecond resolution in the visible with reference stars as faint as 18.5 magnitude in I band on large telescopes. Such an instrument may be used to feed an integral field spectrograph efficiently using configurations that will also be described.

We present the first stringent tests of a novel calibration system based on a laser frequency comb (LFC) for radial velocity measurements. The tests were obtained with the high resolution, optical HARPS spectrograph. Photon noise limited repeatability of 9 cm s^-1 was obtained, using only little more than one of 72 echelle orders. In the calibration curve CCD inhomogeneities showed up and could be calibrated, which were undetectable with previous Th-Ar calibrations. To obtain an even higher repeatability and lower residuals, a larger spectral bandwidth is necessary. An improved version of the LFC is currently under development. The results of the latest tests will be presented.

We investigate the FRD performance of a 150 μm core fibre for its suitability to the SIDE project.¹ This work builds on our previous work² (Paper 1) where we examined the dependence of FRD on length in fibres with a core size of 100 μm and proposed a new multi-component model to explain the results. In order to predict the FRD characteristics of a fibre, the most commonly used model is an adaptation of the Gloge⁸model by Carrasco and Parry³ which quantifies the the number of scattering defects within an optical bre using a single parameter, d0. The model predicts many trends which are seen experimentally, for example, a decrease in FRD as core diameter increases, and also as wavelength increases. However the model also predicts a strong dependence on FRD with length that is not seen experimentally. By adapting the single fibre model to include a second fibre, we can quantify the amount of FRD due to stress caused by the method of termination. By fitting the model to experimental data we find that polishing the fibre causes a small increase in stress to be induced in the end of the fibre compared to a simple cleave technique.

The SPHERE is an exo-solar planet imager, which goal is to detect giant exo-solar planets in the vicinity of bright stars and to characterize them through spectroscopic and polarimetric observations. It is a complete system with a core made of an extreme-Adaptive Optics (AO) wavefront correction, a pupil tracker and diffraction suppression through a variety of coronagraphs. At its back end, a differential dual imaging camera and an integral field spectrograph (IFS) work in the Near Infrared (NIR) Y, J, H and Ks bands (0.95 - 2.32μm), and a high resolution polarization camera covers the optical range (0.6 - 0.9 μm). The IFS is a low resolution spectrograph (R~50) working in the near IR (0.95-1.65 microns), an ideal wavelength range for the detection of giant planet features. In our baseline design the IFU is a new philosophy microlens array of about 145x145 elements designed to reduce as much as possible the cross talk when working at diffraction limit. The IFU will cover a field of view of about 1.7 x 1.7 square arcsecs reaching a contrast of 10^-7, providing a high contrast and high spatial resolution "imager" able to search for planet well inside the star PSF.

The detection of Earth analogues requires extreme Doppler precision and long term stability in order to measure tiny reflex velocities in the host star. The PSF from the spectrometer should be slowly varying with temperature and pressure changes. However, variations in the illumination of the slit and of the spectrograph optics occur on time scales of seconds, primarily because of guiding errors, but also on timescales of minutes, because of changes in the focus or seeing. These variations yield differences in the PSF from observation to observation, which are currently limiting the Doppler precision. Here, we present the design of a low cost fiber optic feed, FINDS, used to stabilize the PSF of the Hamilton spectrograph of Lick observatory along with the first measurements that show dramatic improvement in stability.

In this paper, we present an original observational approach, which combines, for the first time, traditional speckle imaging with image post-processing to obtain in the optical domain diffraction-limited images with high contrast (10^-5) within 0.5 to 2 arcseconds around a bright star. The post-processing step is based on wavelet filtering an has analogy with edge enhancement and high-pass filtering. Our I-band on-sky results with the 2.5-m Nordic Telescope (NOT) and the lucky imaging instrument FASTCAM show that we are able to detect L-type brown dwarf companions around a solar-type star with a contrast ▵I~12 at 2 and with no use of any coronographic capability, which greatly simplifies the instrumental and hardware approach. This object has been detected from the ground in J and H bands so far only with AO-assisted 8-10 m class telescopes (Gemini, Keck), although more recently detected with small-class telescopes in the K band. Discussing the advantage and disadvantage of the optical regime for the detection of faint intrinsic fluxes close to bright stars, we develop some perspectives for other fields, including the study of dense cores in globular clusters. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that high contrast considerations are included in optical speckle imaging approach.

In the last six years, thanks to the very high radial velocity precision of the HARPS spectrograph, it was possible to detect 21 out of the 30 super-Earth (extrasolar planets masses below 20 times the mass of the Earth) discovered up to date. The radial velocity precision of the instrument is estimated around 80 cm/s on a single measurement. The main instrumental limitations are the wavelength calibration and the stability of the light injection. We address both factors and present the results of recent tests on the HARPS spectrograph. We have identified the laser frequency comb as the ideal wavelength calibrator, due to the width, density and flux of the lines, and to its intrinsic stability. The results from the recent tests that we performed on HARPS are encouraging. The accurate guiding of the telescope is critical to maintain a stable light distribution at the injection stage, where the light is sent into the spectrograph entrance fiber. To pursue this goal we are testing a secondary guiding system which is able to apply the guiding corrections twenty times faster than the primary guiding system.

Chinese national science project-LAMOST successfully received its official blessing in June, 2009. Its aperture is about 4m, and its focal plane of 1.75m in diameter, corresponding to a 5° field of view, can accommodate as many as 4000 optical fibers, and feed 16 multi-object low-medium resolution spectrometers (LRS). In addition, a new technique called External Dispersed Interferometry (EDI) is successfully used to enhance the accuracy of radial velocity measurement by heterodyning an interference spectrum with absorption lines. For further enhancing the survey power of LAMOST, a major astronomical project, Multi-object Exoplanet Survey System (MESS) based on this advanced technique, is being developed by Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology (NIAOT) and National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), and funded by Joint Fund of Astronomy, which is set up by National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (NSFC) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This system is composed of a multi-object fixed delay Michelson interferometer (FDMI) and a multi-object medium resolution spectrometer (R=5000). In this paper, a prototype design of FDMI is given, including optical system and mechanical structure.

We report on high-accuracy, high-resolution (< 20mas) stellar measurements obtained in the near infrared ( 2.2 microns) at the Palomar 200 inch telescope using two elliptical (3m x 1.5m) sub-apertures located 3.4m apart. Our interferometric coronagraph, known as the "Palomar Fiber Nuller" (PFN), is located downstream of the Palomar adaptive optics (AO) system and recombines the two separate beams into a common singlemode fiber. The AO system acts as a "fringe tracker", maintaining the optical path difference (OPD) between the beams around an adjustable value, which is set to the central dark interference fringe. AO correction ensures high efficiency and stable injection of the beams into the single-mode fiber. A chopper wheel and a fast photometer are used to record short (< 50ms per beam) interleaved sequences of background, individual beam and interferometric signals. In order to analyze these chopped null data sequences, we developed a new statistical method, baptized "Null Self-Calibration" (NSC), which provides astrophysical null measurements at the 0.001 level, with 1 σ uncertainties as low as 0.0003. Such accuracy translates into a dynamic range greater than 1000:1 within the diffraction limit, demonstrating that the approach effectively bridges the traditional gap between regular coronagraphs, limited in angular resolution, and long baseline visibility interferometers, whose dynamic range is restricted to 100:1. As our measurements are extremely sensitive to the brightness distribution very close to the optical axis, we were able to constrain the stellar diameters and amounts of circumstellar emission for a sample of very bright stars. With the improvement expected when the PALM-3000 extreme AO system comes on-line at Palomar, the same instrument now equipped with a state of the art low noise fast read-out near IR camera, will yield 10^-4 to 10^-3 contrast as close as 30 mas for stars with K magnitude brighter than 6. Such a system will provide a unique and ideal tool for the detection of young (<100 Myr) self-luminous planets and hot debris disks in the immediate vicinity (0.1 to a few AUs) of nearby (< 50pc) stars.

The detection and characterization of extrasolar planets by direct imaging is becoming more and more promising with the preparation of dedicated high-contrast instruments and the help of new data analysis techniques. SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast imager for Exoplanets REsearch) is currently being developed as part of the second generation instruments of the ESO-VLT. IRDIS, one of the SPHERE subsystems, will provide dual-band imaging with several filter pairs covering the near-infrared from 0.95 to 2.3 microns, among with other observing modes such as long slit spectroscopy and infrared polarimetry. This paper describes the instrument performances and the impact of instrumental calibrations on finding and characterizing extrasolar planets, and on observing strategies. It discusses constraints to achieve the required contrast of ~106 within few hours of exposure time.

CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exo-earths with Near-infrared and optical Echelle Spectrographs) is a next-generation instrument to be built for the 3.5m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory by a consortium of Spanish and German institutions. Conducting a five-year exoplanet survey targeting ~ 300 M stars with the completed instrument is an integral part of the project. The CARMENES instrument consists of two separate spectrographs covering the wavelength range from 0.52 to 1.7 μm at a spectral resolution of R = 85, 000, fed by fibers from the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. The spectrographs are housed in a temperature-stabilized environment in vacuum tanks, to enable a 1m/s radial velocity precision employing a simultaneous ThAr calibration.

We describe the construction and commissioning of FIRE, a new 0.8-2.5μm echelle spectrometer for the Magellan/ Baade 6.5 meter telescope. FIRE delivers continuous spectra over its full bandpass with nominal spectral resolution R = 6000. Additionally it offers a longslit mode dispersed by the prisms alone, covering the full z to K bands at R ~ 350. FIRE was installed at Magellan in March 2010 and is now performing shared-risk science observations. It is delivering sharp image quality and its throughput is sufficient to allow early observations of high redshift quasars and faint brown dwarfs. This paper outlines several of the new or unique design choices we employed in FIRE's construction, as well as early returns from its on-sky performance.

KMOS is a near-infrared multi-object integral-field spectrometer which is one of a suite of second-generation instruments under construction for the VLT. The instrument is being built by a consortium of UK and German institutes working in partnership with ESO and is now in the manufacture, integration and test phase. In this paper we present an overview of recent progress with the design and build of KMOS and present the first results from the subsystem test and integration.

GNOSIS is an OH suppression unit to be used in conjunction with existing spectrographs. The OH suppression is achieved using fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs), and will deliver the darkest near-infrared background of any ground-based instrument. Laboratory and on-sky tests demonstrate that FBGs can suppress OH lines by 30dB whilst maintaing > 90% throughput between the lines, resulting in a 4 mag decrease in the background. In the first implementation GNOSIS will feed IRIS2 on the AAT. It will consist of a seven element lenslet array, covering 1.4" on the sky, and will suppress the 103 brightest OH lines between 1.47 and 1.70 μm. Future upgrades will include J-band suppression and implementation on an 8m telescope.

The large (~10 m) aperture of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) coupled with the unique capabilities of the Robert Stobie Spectrograph (RSS), promises unparalleled prospects for polarimetric observations on an 8 - 10 m class telescope. RSS is a highly versatile first-generation instrument of the SALT. Results from some of the first commissioning observations with the RSS are presented. A method for reducing SALT RSS spectropolarimetry data is proposed and verified on observations of unpolarised and polarised standard stars. The results provide estimates of telescope and instrumental polarisation as well as a calibration of the instrument's polarimetric position angle offset.

We report on the development of ARCONS, the ARray Camera for Optical to Near-IR Spectrophotometry. This photon counting integral field unit (IFU), being built at UCSB and Caltech with detectors fabricated at JPL, will use a unique, highly multiplexed low temperature detector technology known as Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs). These detectors, which operate at 100 mK, should provide photon counting with energy resolution of R = E/δE > 20 and time resolution of a microsecond, with a quantum efficiency of around 50%. We expect to field the instrument at the Palomar 200" telescope in the first quarter of 2011 with an array containing 1024 pixels in a 32×32 pixel form factor to yield a field of view of approximately 10×10 arcseconds. The bandwidth of the camera is limited by the rising sky count rate at longer wavelengths, but we anticipate a bandwidth of 0.35 to 1.35 μm will be achievable. A simple optical path and compact dewar utilizing a cryogen-free adiabatic demagnetization refridgerator (ADR) allows the camera to be deployed quickly at Naysmith or Coud´e foci at a variety of telescopes. A highly expandable software defined radio (SDR) readout that can scale up to much larger arrays has been developed.

Less than 20 years after the discovery of the first extrasolar planet, exoplanetology is rapidly growing with more than one discovery every week on average since 2007. An important step in exoplanetology is the chemical characterization of exoplanet atmospheres. It has recently been shown that molecular signatures of transiting exoplanets can be studied from the ground. To advance this idea and prepare more ambitious missions such as THESIS, a dedicated spectrometer named the New Mexico Tech Extrasolar Spectroscopic Survey Instrument (NESSI) is being built at New Mexico Tech in collaboration with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NESSI is a purpose-built multi-object spectrograph that operates in the J, H, and K-bands with a resolution of R = 1000 in each, as well as a lower resolution of R = 250 across the entire J/H/K region.

The Infrared Imaging System (IRIS) is a 0.8m telescope and a 1024×1024 pixels camera (IRISCAM) with a HAWAII-1 detector array. IRIS is located at the Cerro Armazones Observatory in Chile that is operated by the Ruhr University Bochum jointly with the Universidad Católica del Norte in Antofagasta. It will be used primarily to survey star-forming regions for variability. Our goal is to discover young stellar objects undergoing accretion instabilities or rotational modulation of star spots, eclipsing binaries, and variable reflection nebulae. The telescope and the infrared camera are completed and first light was achieved in May of 2010. IRIS is currently being tested and characterized, before the longterm monitoring project will commence.

We have developed a germanium immersion grating mid-infrared cryogenic spectrograph (GIGMICS) designed for the Nasmyth focus stage of NAOJ Subaru 8.2 m telescope, which operates at N-band (8-13 μm) in wavelength with the R ~ 50,000. A single crystal germanium immersion echelle grating (30 × 30 × 72 mm) for collimated beam size of Φ28 mm was fabricated by utilizing ultra precision micro-grinding method coupled with the ELID (ELectrolytic In-process Dressing) technique (Ohmori, H. 1992)1. All optical components are arranged on the 800 mm diameter cold optical base plate (~30 K) of the cryostat. By the Si:As IBC (Impurity Band Conductor) focal plane array (FPA) detector (412 × 512 pixels, unit pixel size 30 μm) operated at 5 K simultaneously acquires ~13 % wavelength coverage for N-band. The instrument has been assembled and is now tested for the application to the gas-phase IR high-resolution spectroscopy.

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) will use a dedicated 300-fiber, narrow-band (1.5-1.7 micron), high resolution (R~30,000), near-infrared spectrograph to survey approximately 100,000 giant stars across the Milky Way. This survey, conducted as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS III), will revolutionize our understanding of kinematical and chemical enrichment histories of all Galactic stellar populations. The instrument, currently in fabrication, will be housed in a separate building adjacent to the 2.5 m SDSS telescope and fed light via approximately 45-meter fiber runs from the telescope. The instrument design includes numerous technological challenges and innovations including a gang connector that allows simultaneous connection of all fibers with a single plug to a telescope cartridge that positions the fibers on the sky, numerous places in the fiber train in which focal ratio degradation must be minimized, a large (290 mm x 475 mm elliptically-shaped recorded area) mosaic-VPH, an f/1.4 sixelement refractive camera featuring silicon and fused silica elements with diameters as large as 393 mm, three near-within a custom, LN2-cooled, stainless steel vacuum cryostat with dimensions 1.4 m x 2.3 m x 1.3 m.

MOSFIRE is a unique multi-object spectrometer and imager for the Cassegrain focus of the 10 m Keck 1 telescope. A refractive optical design provides near-IR (0.97 to 2.45 μm) multi-object spectroscopy over a 6.14' x 6.14' field of view with a resolving power of R~3,270 for a 0.7" slit width (2.9 pixels in the dispersion direction), or imaging over a field of view of 6.8' diameter with 0.18" per pixel sampling. A single diffraction grating can be set at two fixed angles, and order-sorting filters provide spectra that cover the K, H, J or Y bands by selecting 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th order respectively. A folding flat following the field lens is equipped with piezo transducers to provide tip/tilt control for flexure compensation at the 0.1 pixel level. A special feature of MOSFIRE is that its multiplex advantage of up to 46 slits is achieved using a cryogenic Configurable Slit Unit or CSU developed in collaboration with the Swiss Centre for Electronics and Micro Technology (CSEM). The CSU is reconfigurable under remote control in less than 5 minutes without any thermal cycling of the instrument. Slits are formed by moving opposable bars from both sides of the focal plane. An individual slit has a length of 7.1" but bar positions can be aligned to make longer slits. When masking bars are removed to their full extent and the grating is changed to a mirror, MOSFIRE becomes a wide-field imager. Using a single, ASIC-driven, 2K x 2K H2-RG HgCdTe array from Teledyne Imaging Sensors with exceptionally low dark current and low noise, MOSFIRE will be extremely sensitive and ideal for a wide range of science applications. This paper describes the design and testing of the instrument prior to delivery later in 2010.

OCTOCAM is a multi-channel imager and spectrograph that has been proposed for the 10.4m GTC telescope. It will use dichroics to split the incoming light to produce simultaneous observations in 8 different bands, ranging from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared. The imaging mode will have a field of view of 2' x 2' in u, g, r, i, z, J, H and KS bands, whereas the long-slit spectroscopic mode will cover the complete range from 4,000 to 23,000 A with a resolution of 700 - 1,000 (depending on the arm and slit width). An additional mode, using an image slicer, will deliver a spectral resolution of over 3,000. As a further feature, it will use state of the art detectors to reach high readout speeds of the order of tens of milliseconds. In this way, OCTOCAM will be occupying a region of the time resolution - spectral resolution - spectral coverage diagram that is not covered by a single instrument in any other observatory, with an exceptional sensitivity.

KMOS is a modular design consisting of three identical parallel segments which in turn contain eight integral field channels. The assembly and integration plan is to build up the instrument step by step and test performance at each stage. The first end to end chain was complete at the end of 2009 and testing commenced. This paper describes the philosophy and management of the test programme, the testing procedures used to study the instrument performance as the light path was built and the results obtained.

The ISS (Integral-field Spectrograph System) has been designed as part of the EAGLE Phase A Instrument Study for the E-ELT. It consists of two input channels of 1.65x1.65 arcsec field-of-view, each reconfigured spatially by an imageslicing integral-field unit to feed a single near-IR spectrograph using cryogenic volume-phase-holographic gratings to disperse the image spectrally. A 4k x 4k array detector array records the dispersed images. The optical design employs anamorphic magnification, image slicing, VPH gratings scanned with a novel cryo-mechanism and a three-lens camera. The mechanical implementation features IFU optics in Zerodur, a modular bench structure and a number of highprecision cryo-mechanisms.

X-shooter is the first second-generation instrument newly commissioned a the VLT. It is a high efficiency single target intermediate resolution spectrograph covering the range 300 - 2500 nm in a single shot. We summarize the main characteristics of the instrument and present its performances as measured during commissioning and the first months of science operations.

VISTA was designed as a survey facility, and was optimized for use with the 64Mpix VISTA IR Camera in the sense that the optical system of the instrument and telescope was designed as a single entity. The commissioning of the IR camera therefore formed a major part of the system integration and commissioning of the whole VISTA system. We describe some aspects of the commissioning process for VISTA, the interplay between the camera and telescope systems, and summarize the results of the verification phase.

The Fibre Multi-Object Spectrograph for Subaru Telescope (FMOS) is a near-infrared instrument with 400 fibres in a 30' filed of view at F/2 prime focus. To observe 400 objects simultaneously, we have developed a fibre positioner called "Echidna" using a tube piezo actuator. We have also developed two OH-airglow suppressed and refrigerated spectrographs. Each spectrograph has two spectral resolution modes: the low-resolution mode and the high-resolution mode. The low-resolution mode covers the complete wavelength range of 0.9 - 1.8 μm with one exposure, while the high-resolution mode requires four exposures at different camera positions to cover the full wavelength range. The first light was accomplished in May 2008. The science observations and the open-use observations begin in May 2010.

LUCIFER 1 is the rst of two identical camera-spectrograph units installed at the LBT (Large Binocular Telescope) on Mount Graham in Arizona. Its commissioning took place between September 2008 and November 2009 and has immediately been followed by science operations since December 2009. LUCIFER has a 4x4 arcminute eld of view. It is equipped with a 2048x2048 pixel HAWAII-2 array, suitable lters (broad-band z, J, H, K & Ks plus 12 medium and narrow band near-infrared lters) and three gratings for spectroscopy for a resolution of up to 15000. LUCIFER has 3 cameras: two specic for seeing limited imaging (the N3.75 camera, with 0.12"/pixel) and spectroscopy (the N1.8 camera, with 0.25"/pixel) and one for diraction limited observations (the N30 camera). We report here about the completed seeing-limited commissioning, thus using only two of the cameras.

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) are developing a near infrared wide-band high resolution spectrograph, IGRINS. IGRINS can observe all of the H- and K-band atmospheric windows with a resolving power of 40,000 in a single exposure. The spectrograph uses a white pupil cross-dispersed layout and includes a dichroic to divide the light between separate H and K cameras, each provided with a 2kx2k HgCdTe detector. A silicon immersion grating serves as the primary disperser and a pair of volume phased holographic gratings serve as cross dispersers, allowing the high resolution echelle spectrograph to be very compact. IGRINS is designed to be compatible with telescopes ranging in diameter from 2.7m (the Harlan J. Smith telescope; HJST) to 4 - 8 m telescopes. Commissioning and initial operation will be on the 2.7m telescope at McDonald Observatory from 2013.

The science instrument for GPI (Gemini Planet Imager) is a cryogenic integral field spectrograph based on a lenslet array. The integral field nature of the instrument allows for a full mapping of the focal plane at coarse spectral resolution. With such a data cube, artifacts within the PSF such as residual speckles can be suppressed. Additionally, the initial detection of any candidate planet will include spectral information that can be used to distinguish it from a background object: candidates can be followed up with detailed spectroscopic observations. The optics between the lenslet array and the detector are essentially a standard spectrograph with a collimating set of lenses, a dispersive prism and a camera set of lenses in a folded assembly. We generally refer to this optical set as the spectrograph optics. This paper describes the laboratory optical performances over the field of view. The test procedure includes the imaging performances in both non dispersive and dispersive mode. The test support equipments include a test cryostat, an illumination module with monochromatic fiber laser, a wideband light source and a test detector module.

The new operational mode of aperture masking interferometry has been added to the CONICA camera which lies downstream of the Adaptive Optics (AO) corrected focus provided by NAOS on the VLT-UT4 telescope. Masking has been shown to deliver superior PSF calibration, rejection of atmospheric noise and robust recovery of phase information through the use of closure phases. Over the resolution range from about half to several resolution elements, masking interferometry is presently unsurpassed in delivering high fidelity imaging and direct detection of faint companions. Here we present results from commissioning data using this powerful new operational mode, and discuss the utility for masking in a variety of scientific contexts. Of particular interest is the combination of the CONICA polarimetry capabilities together with SAM mode operation, which has revealed structures never seen before in the immediate circumstellar environments of dusty evolved stars.

We present the optomechanical design of the Magellan VisAO Integral Field Spectrograph (VisAO IFS), designed to take advantage of Magellan's AO system and its 85.1cm concave ellipsoidal Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM). With 585 actuators and an equal number of actively-controlled modes, this revolutionary second generation ASM will be the first to achieve moderate Strehl ratios into the visible wavelength regime. We have designed the VisAO IFS to be coupled to either Magellan's LDSS-3 spectrograph or to the planned facility M2FS fiber spectrograph and to optimize VisAO science. Designed for narrow field-of-view, high spatial resolution science, this lenslet-coupled fiberfed IFS will offer exciting opportunities for scientific advancement in a variety of fields, including protoplanetary disk morphology and chemistry, resolution and spectral classification of tight astrometric binaries, seasonal changes in the upper atmosphere of Titan, and a better understanding of the black hole M-sigma relation.

Two feasibility studies for spectrographs that can deliver at least 4000 MOS slits over a 1° field at the prime focuses of the Anglo-Australian and Calar Alto Observatories have been completed. We describe the design and science case of the Calar Alto eXtreme Multiplex Spectrograph (XMS) for which an extended study, half way between feasibility study and phase-A, was made. The optical design is quite similar than in the AAO study for the Next Generation 1 degree Field (NG1dF) but the mechanical design of XMS is quite different and much more developed. In a single night, 25000 galaxy redshifts can be measured to z~0.7 and beyond for measuring the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale and many other science goals. This may provide a low-cost alternative to WFMOS for example and other large fibre spectrographs. The design features four cloned spectrographs which gives a smaller total weight and length than a unique spectrograph to makes it placable at prime focus. The clones use a transparent design including a grism in which all optics are about the size or smaller than the clone rectangular subfield so that they can be tightly packed with little gaps between subfields. Only low cost glasses are used; the variations in chromatic aberrations between bands are compensated by changing a box containing the grism and two adjacent lenses. Three bands cover the 420nm to 920nm wavelength range at 10A resolution while another cover the Calcium triplet at 3A. An optional box does imaging. We however also studied different innovative methods for acquisition without imaging. A special mask changing mechanism was also designed to compensate for the lack of space around the focal plane. Conceptual designs for larger projects (AAT 2º field, CFHT, VISTA) have also been done.

The Dark Energy Camera is an wide field imager currently under construction for the Dark Energy Survey. This instrument will use fully depleted 250 μm thick CCD detectors selected for their higher quantum efficiency in the near infrared with respect to thinner devices. The detectors were developed by LBNL using high resistivity Si substrate. The full set of scientific detectors needed for DECam has now been fabricated, packaged and tested. We present here the results of the testing and characterization for these devices and compare these results with the technical requirements for the Dark Energy Survey.

We present on-sky performance results of a new technique, speckle stabilization, with the Stabilized sPeckle Integral Field Spectrograph Proof-Of-Concept (SPIFS-POC) instrument. The SPIFS-POC is an optical-imaging instrument capable of high spatial resolutions much finer than the seeing-limit. It achieves this aim by measuring speckle patterns in real time (through the use of an L3CCD), finding the highest quality speckle, and stabilizing it onto a traditional, low readout speed science camera through the use of a fast steering mirror. This process is repeated at ≈100 Hz over the course of long exposures resulting in a high-resolution core surrounded by a diffuse halo. We show that in the Sloan z' bands, SPIFS is able to acquire spatial resolutions much greater than the seeing limit, even approaching 3λ/D. We also discuss improvements for the next phase of the SPIFS project where we fully expect to be able to recover diffraction-limited spatial resolutions in the optical.

FIFI LS is the German far-infrared integral field spectrometer for the SOFIA airborne observatory. The instrument consists of two independent integral field spectrometers for two different wavelength bands (45-110 μm and 100-200 μm). A dichroic filter enables simultaneous observation of two different spectral lines in the same field-of view. This allows very efficient mapping of extended regions with FIFI LS in many important far-infrared cooling lines with line ratios sensitive to temperature and density. FIFI LS will become a facility instrument for SOFIA. In the next two years it will become a fully commissioned facility instrument. After its commission, FIFI LS will be available for general observing with a large science potential. In this paper, we will also discuss the science of FIFI LS.

FORCAST is the "first light" U. S. science instrument to fly aboard SOFIA. FORCAST offers dual channel imaging in discrete filters at 5 - 25 microns and 30 - 40 microns, with diffraction-limited imaging at wavelengths > 15 microns. FORCAST has a plate scale of 0.75 arcsec per pixel, giving it a 3.2 arcmin x 3.2 arcmin FOV on SOFIA. We give a status update on FORCAST development, including the performance of new far-IR filters; design and performance of the calibration box; laboratory operations and performance; and results from ground-based and first flight operations.

CASIMIR, the Caltech Airborne Submillimeter Interstellar Medium Investigations Receiver, is a far-infrared and submillimeter heterodyne spectrometer, being developed for the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA. CASIMIR will use newly developed superconducting-insulating-superconducting (SIS) mixers. Combined with the 2.5 m mirror of SOFIA, these detectors will allow observations with high sensitivity to be made in the frequency range from 500 GHz up to 1.4 THz. Initially, at least 5 frequency bands in this range are planned, each with a 4-8 GHz IF passband. Up to 4 frequency bands will be available on each flight and bands may be swapped readily between flights. The local oscillators for all bands are synthesized and tuner-less, using solid state multipliers. CASIMIR also uses a novel, commercial, field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based, fast Fourier transform spectrometer, with extremely high resolution, 22000 (268 kHz at 6 GHz), yielding a system resolution > 10⁶. CASIMIR is extremely well suited to observe the warm, ≈ 100K, interstellar medium, particularly hydrides and water lines, in both galactic and extragalactic sources. We present an overview of the instrument, its capabilities and systems. We also describe recent progress in development of the local oscillators and present our first astronomical observations obtained with the new type of spectrometer.

Ultraviolet emission from the first generation of stars in the Universe ionized the intergalactic medium in a process which was completed by z ~ 6; the wavelength of these photons has been redshifted by (1 + z) into the near infrared today and can be measured using instruments situated above the Earth's atmosphere. First flying in February 2009, the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER) comprises four instruments housed in a single reusable sounding rocket borne payload. CIBER will measure spatial anisotropies in the extragalactic IR background caused by cosmological structure from the epoch of reionization using two broadband imaging instruments, make a detailed characterization of the spectral shape of the IR background using a low resolution spectrometer, and measure the absolute brightness of the Zodiacal light foreground with a high resolution spectrometer in each of our six science fields. The scientific motivation for CIBER and details of its first and second flight instrumentation will be discussed. First flight results on the color of the zodiacal light around 1 μm and plans for the future will also be presented.

This communication shows the feasibility study of a new instrument designed for the 4 meter European Solar Telescope (EST) for high resolution spectro-polarimetric observations. This paper is specifically focused on the spectrographs that allow the simultaneous observation of 5 visible and 4 near-infrared wavelengths (complying with the science requirements), with 8 entrance slits of 200arcsec each fed by an integral field unit covering an area on the solar surface of 9 x 9 arcsec².

The area of high precision solar spectropolarimetry has made great advances in recent years and the Zurich IMaging POLarimeter (ZIMPOL) systems have played a major role in that. ZIMPOL reaches a polarimetric accuracy of 10^-5 by using fast (kHz) polarization modulation/demodulation of the light beam in combination with large-area array detectors. A new generation of improved cameras (ZIMPOL-3) are being implemented for the scientific observations at the solar observatory at Istituto Ricerche Solari Locarno. The new system is based on a flexible and compact modular design, which easily adapts to new applications. A faster electronics and new sensors with higher quantum efficency compared to the previous ZIMPOL versions, allow to achieve a better overall efficency. Future plans include observing campaigns at foremost large telescopes and the exploration of new technologies (e.g. CMOS).

The Auxiliary Full-Disc Telescope (AFDT) will be used for the orientation of the observer on the solar disc and in its surroundings, for an easy guidance of the European Solar Telescope (EST) to a selected target, and for precise coordinate measurements. AFDT can be used as an autonomous robotic telescope for synoptic observations and records of solar activity also when no observations are carried out at the EST main telescope. The principal functions of AFDT and the related requirements are summarised. The specific axial mechanical structure accommodating the refractor optical system is outlined. The optical system and its components are described. Two alternatives of the positional control system - the active guiding system and the passive guiding system - are described and their functionality is analysed.

EST is a project for a 4-meter class telescope to be located in the Canary Islands. EST will be optimized for studies of the magnetic coupling between the photosphere and the chromosphere. This requires high spatial and temporal resolution diagnostics tools of properties of the plasma, by using multiple wavelength spectropolarimetry. To achieve these goals, visible and near-IR multi-purpose spectrographs are being designed to be compatible with different modes of use: LsSS (Long-slit Standard Spectrograph), multi-slit multi-wavelength spectrograph with an integral field unit, TUNIS (Tunable Universal Narrow-band Imaging Spectrograph), and new generation MSDP (Multi-channel Subtractive Double-pass Spectrograph). In this contribution, these different instrumental configurations are described.

At future telescopes, adaptive optics systems will play a role beyond the correction of Earth's atmosphere. These systems are capable of delivering information that is useful for instrumentation, e.g. if reconstruction algorithms are employed to increase the spatial resolution of the scientific data. For the 4m aperture Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), a new generation of state-of-the-art instrumentation is developed that will deliver observations of the solar surface at unsurpassed high spatial resolution. The planned Visual Broadband Imager (VBI) is one of those instruments. It will be able to record images at an extremely high rate and compute reconstructed images close to the telescope's theoretical diffraction limit using a speckle interferometry algorithm in near real-time. This algorithm has been refined to take data delivered by the adaptive optics system into account during reconstruction. The acquisition and reconstruction process requires the use of a high-speed data handling infrastructure to retrieve the necessary data from both adaptive optics system and instrument cameras. We present the current design of this infrastructure for the ATST together with a feasibility analysis of the underlying algorithms.

An overview of the current status of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) instrumentation program is presented. Conceptual designs for the three first light instruments (IRIS, WFOS and IRMS) are in progress, as well as feasibility studies of MIRES. Considerable effort is underway to understand the end-to-end performance of the complete telescopeadaptive optics-instrument system under realistic conditions on Mauna Kea. Highly efficient operation is being designed into the TMT system, based on a detailed investigation of the observation workflow to ensure very fast target acquisition and set up of all subsystems. Future TMT instruments will almost certainly involve contributions from institutions in many different locations in North America and partner nations. Coordinating and optimizing the design and construction of the instruments to ensure delivery of the best possible scientific capabilities is an interesting challenge. TMT welcomes involvement from all interested instrument teams.

In this paper we present a brief status report on the conceptual designs of the instruments and adaptive optics modules that have been studied for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). In parallel with the design study for the 42-m telescope, ESO launched 8 studies devoted to the proposed instruments and 2 for post-focal adaptive optics systems. The studies were carried out in consortia of ESO member state institutes or, in two cases, by ESO in collaboration with external institutes. All studies have now been successfully completed. The result is a powerful set of facility instruments which promise to deliver the scientific goals of the telescope. The aims of the individual studies were broad: to explore the scientific capabilities required to meet the E-ELT science goals, to examine the technical feasibility of the instrument, to understand the requirements placed on the telescope design and to develop a delivery plan. From the perspective of the observatory, these are key inputs to the development of the proposal for the first generation E-ELT instrument suite along with the highest priority science goals and budgetary and technical constraints. We discuss the lessons learned and some of the key results of the process.

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a 24.5m diameter optical/infrared telescope. Its seven 8.4m primary mirrors give it a collecting area equivalent to a 21.4m filled aperture. The ten GMT partners are constructing the telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile with first light planned for the end of 2018. In this paper, we describe the plans for the first-generation focal plane instrumentation for the telescope. The GMTO Corporation has solicited studies for instruments capable of carrying out the broad range of objectives outlined in the GMT Science Case. Six instruments have been selected for 14 month long conceptual design studies. We briefly describe the features of these instruments and give examples of the major science questions that they can address.

The early future of astronomy will be dominated by Extremely Large Telescopes where the focal lengths will be of the order of several hundred meters. This yields focal plane sizes of roughly one square meter to obtain a field of view of about 5 x 5 arcmin. When operated in seeing limited mode this field is correctly sampled with 1x1mm pixels. Such a sampling can be achieved using a peculiar array of tiny CMOS active photodiodes illuminated through microlenses or lightpipes. If the photodiode is small enough and utilizes the actual pixel technology, its dark current can be kept well below the sky background photocurrent, thus avoiding the use of cumbersome cryogenics systems. An active smart electronics will manage each pixel up to the A/D conversion and data transfer. This modular block is the Pixel-One. A 30x30 mm tile filled with 1000 Pixel-Ones could be the basic unit to mosaic very large focal planes. By inserting dispersion elements inside the optical path of the lenslet array one could also produce a low dispersed spectrum of each focal plane sub-aperture and, by using an array of few smart photodiodes, also get multi-wavelength information in the optical band for each equivalent focal plane pixel. An application to the E-ELT is proposed.

The Multi-Object Broadband Imaging Echellette (MOBIE) is the seeing-limited, wide-field multi-object optical imaging spectrograph planned for first-light operation on the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). Following the completion of a feasibility study and requirements review in December 2008, the MOBIE instrument project, based at the University of California Observatories (UCO) on the UC Santa Cruz campus, entered a conceptual design phase. In this paper, we describe the latest developments in the instrument optical design, and progress in the conceptual design of the optomechanical and mechanical elements for the instrument.

We present the science, design and performances of DIORAMAS, an imager and multi-slit spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope. It covers a wide 6.8x6.8 arcmin² field, a large wavelength range 0.37 to 1.6 microns. The exceptional performances of this concept will enable extremely deep images to magnitudes AB~30 and high multiplex spectroscopy with up to ~500 slits observed simultaneously at spectral resolutions from R~300 to more than 120 slits at R~3000. The technical design is robust with only proven technology, and DIORAMAS could be developed on a timescale compatible with the EELT first light.

We present an overview of the design of IRIS, an infrared (0.85 - 2.5 micron) integral field spectrograph and imaging camera for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). With extremely low wavefront error (<30 nm) and on-board wavefront sensors, IRIS will take advantage of the high angular resolution of the narrow field infrared adaptive optics system (NFIRAOS) to dissect the sky at the diffraction limit of the 30-meter aperture. With a primary spectral resolution of 4000 and spatial sampling starting at 4 milliarcseconds, the instrument will create an unparalleled ability to explore high redshift galaxies, the Galactic center, star forming regions and virtually any astrophysical object. This paper summarizes the entire design and basic capabilities. Among the design innovations is the combination of lenslet and slicer integral field units, new 4Kx4k detectors, extremely precise atmospheric dispersion correction, infrared wavefront sensors, and a very large vacuum cryogenic system.

MICADO is the adaptive optics imaging camera for the E-ELT. It has been designed and optimised to be mounted to the LGS-MCAO system MAORY, and will provide diffraction limited imaging over a wide (~1 arcmin) field of view. For initial operations, it can also be used with its own simpler AO module that provides on-axis diffraction limited performance using natural guide stars. We discuss the instrument's key capabilities and expected performance, and show how the science drivers have shaped its design. We outline the technical concept, from the opto-mechanical design to operations and data processing. We describe the AO module, summarise the instrument performance, and indicate some possible future developments.

SIMPLE is an optimized near IR echelle spectrograph for the E-ELT assisted by adaptive optics. It delivers a complete 0.84-2.5μm spectrum in one exposure with resolution up to R=130,000, nearly diffraction limited pixel scale and limiting magnitudes down to JHK~20. Its most prominent science cases include the study of the intergalactic medium in the early Universe (z>6) and of the atmospheres of exo-planet transiting nearby low mass stars.

A mid-infrared imager and spectrometer is under consideration for construction in the first decade of the Thirty- Meter Telescope (TMT) operation (see the companion paper by Okamoto). MIRES, a mid-infrared high-spectral resolution optimized instrument, was previously proposed to provide these capabilities to the TMT community. We have revised the design in order to provide an improved optical design for the high-spectral resolution mode with R=120,000, improved imaging with sky chopping, low-spectral resolution mode with an integral field spectrograph, and polarimetry. In this paper we describe the optical design concepts currently under consideration.

EAGLE is an instrument under consideration for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). EAGLE will be installed at the Gravity Invariant Focal Station of the E-ELT. The baseline design consists of 20 IFUs deployable over a patrol field of ~40 arcmin2. Each IFU has an individual field of view of ~ 1.65" x 1.65". While EAGLE can operate with the Adaptive Optics correction delivered by the telescope, its full and unrivaled scientific power will be reached with the added value of its embedded Multi-Object Adaptive Optics System (MOAO). EAGLE will be a unique and efficient facility for spatially-resolved, spectroscopic surveys of high-redshift galaxies and resolved stellar populations. We detail the three main science drivers that have been used to specify the top level science requirements. We then present the baseline design of the instrument at the end of Phase A, and in particular its Adaptive Optics System. We show that the instrument has a readiness level that allows us to proceed directly into phase B, and we indicate how the instrument development is planned.

Presently, dedicated instruments at large telescopes (SPHERE for the VLT, GPI for Gemini) are about to discover and explore self-luminous giant planets by direct imaging and spectroscopy. The next generation of 30m-40m ground-based telescopes, the Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs), have the potential to dramatically enlarge the discovery space towards older giant planets seen in reflected light and ultimately even a small number of rocky planets. EPICS is a proposed instrument for the European ELT, dedicated to the detection and characterization of Exoplanets by direct imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry. ESO completed a phase-A study for EPICS with a large European consortium which - by simulations and demonstration experiments - investigated state-of-the-art diffraction and speckle suppression techniques to deliver highest contrasts. The paper presents the instrument concept and analysis as well as its main innovations and science capabilities. EPICS is capable of discovering hundreds of giant planets, and dozens of lower mass planets down to the rocky planets domain.

CODEX is the proposed ultra-stable optical high-resolution spectrograph for the E-ELT, which will use novel Laser Comb calibration techniques and an innovative design to open a new era for precision spectroscopy. With its unique combination of light-collecting power and precision, CODEX will make it possible to directly measure the acceleration of the Universe by monitoring the cosmological redshift drift of spectroscopic features at cosmological distances. CODEX will also allow the assembly of the first sizeable sample of earth-like planets in the habitable zones of their stars with the radial velocity technique. CODEX will take this technique to the level of cm/sec radial velocity stability - a factor of about 20 improvement compared to current instruments. These are two of the scientific results anticipated for CODEX, which will be complemented by a wide range of spectacular science in stellar, galactic and extra-galactic Astronomy as well as Fundamental Physics. All the critical technology items are available or (as for the Laser Frequency Comb) are in an advanced state of testing. CODEX is located at the E-ELT coudé focus that will cover the visible range from 370 to 710 nm and provide a resolving power R~120000 with an aperture of 0.8 arcseconds in the sky.

METIS is the 'Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph', the only planned thermal/mid-IR instrument for the E-ELT. METIS will provide diffraction limited imaging in the atmospheric L/M and N-band from 3 - 14 μm over an 18"×18" field of view (FOV). The imager also includes high contrast coronagraphy and low-resolution (900 ≤ R ≤ 5000) long slit spectroscopy and polarimetry. In addition, an IFU fed, high resolution spectrograph at L/M band will provide a spectral resolution of R ~ 100,000 over a 0.4"×1.5" FOV. The adaptive optics (AO) system is relatively simple, and METIS can reach its full performance with the adaptive correction provided by the telescope - and occasionally even under seeing limited conditions. On a 42m ELT, METIS will provide state-of-the-art mid-IR performance from the ground. The science case for METIS is based on proto-planetary disks, characterization of exoplanets, formation of our Solar System, growth of supermassive black holes, and the dynamics of high-z galaxies. With the focus on highest angular resolution and highest spectral resolution, METIS is highly complementary to JWST and ALMA. This paper summarizes the science case for METIS, and describes the instrument concept, performance and operational aspects.

The Infra-Red Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is one of the three first light instruments for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and is the only one to directly sample the diffraction limit. The instrument consists of a parallel imager and offaxis Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS) for optimum use of the near infrared (0.84um-2.4um) Adaptive Optics corrected focal surface. We present an overview of the IRIS spectrograph that is designed to probe a range of scientific targets from the dynamics and morphology of high-z galaxies to studying the atmospheres and surfaces of solar system objects, the latter requiring a narrow field and high Strehl performance. The IRIS spectrograph is a hybrid system consisting of two state of the art IFS technologies providing four plate scales (4mas, 9mas, 25mas, 50mas spaxel sizes). We present the design of the unique hybrid system that combines the power of a lenslet spectrograph and image slicer spectrograph in a configuration where major hardware is shared. The result is a powerful yet economical solution to what would otherwise require two separate 30m-class instruments.

We describe the results of a Phase A study for a single field, wide band, near-infrared integral field spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). HARMONI, the High Angular Resolution Monolithic Optical & Nearinfrared Integral field spectrograph, provides the E-ELT's core spectroscopic requirement. It is a work-horse instrument, with four different spatial scales, ranging from seeing to diffraction-limited, and spectral resolving powers of 4000, 10000 & 20000 covering the 0.47 to 2.45 μm wavelength range. It is optimally suited to carry out a wide range of observing programs, focusing on detailed, spatially resolved studies of extended objects to unravel their morphology, kinematics and chemical composition, whilst also enabling ultra-sensitive observations of point sources. We present a synopsis of the key science cases motivating the instrument, the top level specifications, a description of the opto-mechanical concept, operation and calibration plan, and image quality and throughput budgets. Issues of expected performance, complementarity and synergies, as well as simulated observations are presented elsewhere in these proceedings[1].

METIS: "Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph" is the mid-infrared (3 - 14 microns) instrument for imaging and spectroscopy for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). To ensure high detection sensitivity the internal radiation of the instrument needs to be eliminated (sufficiently reduced) and thus needs to be operated at cryogenic temperatures. The instrument is divided in a cold and warm system. The cold system, the actual heart of the system, is subdivided into five main opto-mechanical modules located within a common cryostat (part of the warm system). The warm system provides the crucial environment for the cold system, including the instrument control and maintenance equipment. The end 2009 finished Phase-A study carried out within the framework of the ESO sponsored E-ELT instrumentation studies has been performed by an international consortium with institutes from Netherlands (PI: Bernhard Brandl - NOVA), Germany, France, United Kingdom and Belgium. During this conference various aspects of the METIS instrument (design) are presented in several papers, including the instrument concept and science case, and the system engineering and optical design. This paper describes the design constraints and key issues regarding the packaging of this complex cryogenic instrument. The design solutions to create a light, small and fully accessible instrument are discussed together with the specific subdivision of the cold and warm system to ensure concurrent development at various different institutes around Europe. In addition the paper addresses the design and development studies for the special, challenging units such as the large optical image de-rotator, the (2D) chopper mechanism and the special cryogenic drives.

We are designing a sensitive high resolution (R=60,000-100,000) spectrograph for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMTNIRS, the GMT Near-Infrared Spectrograph). Using large-format IR arrays and silicon immersion gratings, this instrument will cover all of the J (longer than 1.1 μm), H, and K atmospheric windows or all of the L and M windows in a single exposure. GMTNIRS makes use of the GMT adaptive optics system for all bands. The small slits will offer the possibility of spatially resolved spectroscopy as well as superior sensitivity and wavelength coverage. The GMTNIRS team is composed of scientists and engineers at the University of Texas, the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, and Kyung Hee University. In this paper, we describe the optical and mechanical design of the instrument. The principal innovative feature of the design is the use of silicon immersion gratings which are now being produced by our team with sufficient quality to permit designs with high resolving power and broad instantaneous wavelength coverage across the near-IR.

OPTIMOS-EVE (OPTical Infrared Multi Object Spectrograph - Extreme Visual Explorer) is the fibre fed multi object spectrograph proposed for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), planned to be operational in 2018 at Cerro Armazones (Chile). It is designed to provide a spectral resolution of 6000, 18000 or 30000, at wavelengths from 370 nm to 1.7 μm, combined with a high multiplex (>200) and a large spectral coverage. Additionally medium and large IFUs are available. The system consists of three main modules: a fibre positioning system, fibres and a spectrograph. The recently finished OPTIMOS-EVE Phase-A study, carried out within the framework of the ESO E-ELT instrumentation studies, has been performed by an international consortium consisting of institutes from France, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Italy. All three main science themes of the E-ELT are covered by this instrument: Planets and Stars; Stars and Galaxies; Galaxies and Cosmology. This paper gives an overview of the OPTIMOS-EVE project, describing the science cases, top level requirements, the overall technical concept and the project management approach. It includes a description of the consortium, highlights of the science drivers and resulting science requirements, an overview of the instrument design and telescope interfaces, the operational concept, expected performance, work breakdown and management structure for the construction of the instrument, cost and schedule.

The detector for the ESPaDOnS spectrograph at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is a CCD42-90 4.5kx2k CCD from e2v Industries in a liquid nitrogen cooled GL Scientific cryostat. This paper describes the conversion of this camera to closed-cycle cooling using a Polycold® cryogenic refrigeration system. Topics covered include vibration analysis, positional stability of the image plane, cool-down characteristics, PLC integration, and annual operational overheads for both systems.

The L/M-band Infrared Camera (LMIRcam) is a first-generation imager being constructed for the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, operating at 3-5 μm. Given the high sky background at these wavelengths, an FPGA-based controller provides high-speed, flexible data acquisition. Originally designed for FORCAST, a mid- IR camera/spectrograph built by Cornell University, the controller was modified to interface with LMIRcam's Teledyne HAWAII-1RG 1024×1024 array. In order to facilitate the different operating modes and increased array size, we have developed a modified version of the FORCAST device driver, reconfigured the FPGAs, altered the control software, and plan to implement a window mode.

The goal of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is to measure the dark energy equation of state parameter with four complementary techniques: galaxy cluster counts, weak lensing, angular power spectrum and type Ia supernovae. DES will survey a 5000 sq. degrees area of the sky in five filter bands using a new 3 deg2 mosaic camera (DECam) mounted at the prime focus of the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro-Tololo International Observatory (CTIO). DECam is a ~520 megapixel optical CCD camera that consists of 62 2k x 4k science sensors plus 4 2k x 2k sensors for guiding. The CCDs, developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and packaged and tested at Fermilab, have been selected to obtain images efficiently at long wavelengths. A front-end electronics system has been developed specifically to perform the CCD readout. The system is based in Monsoon, an open source image acquisition system designed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). The electronics consists mainly of three types of modules: Control, Acquisition and Clock boards. The system provides a total of 132 video channels, 396 bias levels and around 1000 clock channels in order to readout the full mosaic at 250 kpixel/s speed with 10 e- noise performance. System configuration and data acquisition is done by means of six 0.8 Gbps optical links. The production of the whole system is currently underway. The contribution will focus on the testing, calibration and general performance of the full system in a realistic environment.

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) employs 116 of 2k×4k CCDs with 464 signal outputs in total. The image size exceeds 2 GBytes, and the data can be readout every 10 seconds which results in the data rate of 210 Mbytes / sec. The data is digitized to 16-bit. The readout noise of the electronics at the readout time of 20 seconds is ~0.9 ADU, and the one with CCD is ~1.5 ADU which corresponds to ~4.5 e. The linearity error fits within ± 0.5 % up to 150,000 e. The CCD readout electronics for HSC was newly developed based on the electronics for Suprime-Cam. The frontend electronics (FEE) is placed in the vacuum dewar, and the backend electronics (BEE) is mounted on the outside of the dewar on the prime focus unit. The FEE boards were designed to minimize the outgas and to maximize the heat transfer efficiency to keep the vacuum of the dewar. The BEE boards were designed to be simple and small as long as to achieve the readout time within 10 seconds. The production of the system has been finished, and the full set of the boards are being tested with several CCDs installed in the HSC dewar. We will show the system design, performance, and the current status of the development.

The KMOS Instrument is built to be one of the second generation VLT instruments. It is a highly complex multi-object spectrograph for the near infrared. Nearly 60 cryogenic mechanisms have to be controlled. This includes 24 deployable Pick-Off arms, three filter and grating wheels as well as three focus stages and four lamps with an attenuator wheel. These mechanisms and a calibration unit are supervised by three control cabinets based on the VLT standards. To follow the rotation of the Nasmyth adaptor the cabinets are mounted into a Co-rotating structure. The presentation will highlight the requirements on the electronics control and how these are met by new technologies applying a compact and reliable signal distribution. To enable high density wiring within the given space envelope flex-rigid printed circuit board designs have been installed. In addition an electronic system that detects collisions between the moving Pick-Off arms will be presented for safe operations. The control system is designed to achieve two micron resolution as required by optomechanical and flexure constraints. Dedicated LVDT sensors are capable to identify the absolute positions of the Pick- Off arms. These contribute to a safe recovery procedure after power failure or accidental collision.

The search for extrasolar planets is an exciting new field of astronomy. Since detection of a planet orbiting the sun-like star 51 Peg,1 the field of planet finding has pushed the limits of sensitivity and accuracy in astronomical photometry and spectroscopy. To date 455 exoplanets have been detected*, of which the radial velocity technique is responsible for nearly 80%.2 Radial velocity measurements are also an important complement to photometric missions such as Kepler and CoRoT, which survey vast numbers of stars simultaneously but which require follow up measurements for positive identification of planets. The chief objective in the search for exoplanets is the identification of habitable Earth-like planets in close proximity to our solar system. Of the currently detected exoplanets, only a few are Earth-like,3 the vast majority being giants in close orbits. While it is possible that these planets are the most common type, it is likely that an inherent selection bias in planet finding techniques is the cause. Simply, large radial velocity shifts and high contrast occultations are the most detectable by radial velocity spectroscopy and photometry, and so we primarily observe planets capable of inducing them.

CARMENES has been proposed as a next-generation instrument for the 3.5m Calar Alto Telescope. Its objective is finding habitable exoplanets around M dwarfs through radial velocity measurements (m/s level) in the near-infrared. Consequently, the NIR spectrograph is highly constraint regarding thermal/mechanical requirements. Indeed, the requirements used for the present study limit the thermal stability to ±0.01K (within year period) over a working temperature of 243K in order to minimise radial velocity drifts. This can be achieved by implementing a solution based on several temperature-controlled rooms (TCR), whose smallest room encloses the vacuum vessel which houses the spectrograph's optomechanics. Nevertheless, several options have been taken into account to minimise the complexity of the thermal design: 1) Large thermal inertia of the system, where, given a thermal instability of the environment (typically, ±0.1K), the optomechanical system remains stable within ±0.01K in the long run; 2) Environment thermal control, where thermal stability is ensured by controlling the temperature of the environment surrounding the vacuum vessel. The present article also includes the comprehensive transient-state thermal analyses which have been implemented in order to make the best choice, as well as to give important inputs for the thermal layout of the instrument.

SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research) is VLT instrument for the discovery and study of new extra-solar giant planets orbiting nearby stars by direct imaging of their circumstellar environment. SPHERE is a complex instrument containing more than 50 optical surfaces. The optical imperfections of each of these surfaces might influence the final contrast. SPHERE has several observing modes in Visible and Infrared, and therefore several optical paths. FOROS is an end-to-end optical propagation code for SPHERE, which includes almost all surfaces of the instrument. It models the instrument by the sequential blocks: VLT, Foreoptics, Corrective Optics, Coronagraph and so on, such that the beam quality can be studied at several selected locations. The Vis and IR paths are separated in the model. It incorporates the real data of surface measurement, according to the availability of this data. Each surface error can be switched on and off; therefore the influence of each surface on the contrast can be studied independently. FOROS is an IDL-PROPER-based code, the main power of which is Fresnel propagation. Therefore it represents a numerical tool to study the Fresnel diffraction effects in SPHERE. In the paper we describe the structure and philosophy of the code. The phase screens are not yet implemented.

The ESO planet-finder VLT instrument SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch), scheduled for first light in 2011, aims to detected and characterize giant extra-solar planet and the circumstellar environments in the very close vicinity of bright stars. The extreme brightness contrast and small angular separation between the planets or disks and their parent stars have so far proven very challenging. SPHERE will meet this challenge by using an extreme AO system, stellar coronagraphs, an infrared dual band and polarimetric imager called IRDIS, an integral field spectrograph, and a visible polarimetric differential imager called ZIMPOL. Additional smart imaging techniques such has differential imaging and differential polarimetry will be also included to cancel out the light from the parent star and reach typical contrasts of 10^-5. We describe here the performances and the detection limit of IRDIS polarimetric mode for imaging extended stellar environments.

One of the main challenges to obtain the contrast of >15mag targeted by the extra-solar planet imager SPHERE lies in the calibration of all the different elements participating in the final performance. The Adaptive Optics (AO) system and its three embedded loops, the coronagraphs, the Near Infrared (NIR) dual band imager, the NIR integral field spectrograph, the NIR spectrograph, the visible high accuracy polarimeter and the visible imager all require sophisticated calibration. The calibration process relies on a specific complex calibration module that provides the different sources across the spectrum (500-2320nm) with the stabilities and precisions required and positions them when the need to be. This calibration module has just passed all verification tests and its performance is now well characterized. Its design and performance is the object of this article.

SPHERE is a planet hunting instrument for the VLT 8m telescope in Chile whose prime objective is the discovery and characterization of young Jupiter-sized planets outside of the solar system. It is a complex instrument, consisting of an extreme Adaptive Optics System (SAXO), various coronagraphs, an infrared differential imaging camera (IRDIS), an infrared integral field spectrograph (IFS) and a visible differential polarimeter (ZIMPOL). The performance of the IRDIS camera is directly related to various wavefront error budgets of the instrument, in particular the differential aberrations occurring after separation of the two image beams. We report on the ongoing integration and testing activities in terms of optical, mechanical, and cryo-vacuum instrument parts. In particular, we show results of component level tests of the optics and indicate expected overall performance in comparison with design-level budgets. We also describe the plans for instrumental performance and science testing of the instrument, foreseen to be conducted during coming months.

SPHERE is a second generation instrument for the Very Large Telescope (VLT) which will aim at directly detecting the intrinsic flux of young giant exoplanets thanks to a dedicated extreme adaptive optics system and coronagraphs. Exoplanet detection in the near-infrared will be performed in parallel with an integral field spectrograph and a differential imager, IRDIS. IRDIS main mode for exoplanet detection will be Dual- Band Imaging (DBI) where two images are acquired simultaneously at close wavelengths around expected sharp features in cold planetary objects spectra. We present here the end-to-end simulations performed to obtain realistic data for IRDIS in DBI mode with temporal evolution of the quasi-static speckle pattern. Data cubes have been generated to represent 4 hour observations in IRDIS filter pairs for various star magnitudes and planets at angular separations from 0."2 to 2".0. Using this unique set of data, we present a comparison of various data analysis methods for high-contrast imaging with IRDIS in DBI mode both in terms of detection limits and of estimation of the exoplanet flux after speckle noise attenuation.

Controlling the amplitude of light is crucial for many scientific applications, such as imaging systems, astronomical instruments, optical testing, or laser physics. We provide an overview of the halftoning technique - the process of displaying a continuous image with binary dots - for application to coronagraphy. Customized filters with spatially varying transmission are produced using a binary array of metal pixels (namely microdot masks) that offers excellent control of the local transmission, with intrinsic achromaticity. Applications, design guidelines, and tests of near-IR prototypes for both pupil and focal plane coronagraphic devices are presented in the context of the VLT-SPHERE and EELT EPICS instruments.

HiCIAO is a near-infrared, high contrast instrument which is specifically designed for searches and studies for extrasolar planets and proto-planetary/debris disks on the Subaru 8.2 m telescope. A coronagraph technique and three differential observing modes, i.e., a dual-beam simultaneous polarimetric differential imaging mode, quad-beam simultaneous spectral differential imaging mode, and angular differential imaging mode, are used to extract faint objects from the sea of speckle around bright stars. We describe the instrument performances verified in the laboratory and during the commissioning period. Readout noise with a correlated double sampling method is 15 e- using the Sidecar ASIC controller with the HAWAII-2RG detector array, and it is as low as 5 e- with a multiple sampling method. Strehl ratio obtained by HiCIAO on the sky combined with the 188-actuator adaptive optics system (AO188) is 0.4 and 0.7 in the H and K-band, respectively, with natural guide stars that have R ~ 5 and under median seeing conditions. Image distortion is correctable to 7 milli-arcsec level using the ACS data as a reference image. Examples of contrast performances in the observing modes are presented from data obtained during the commissioning period. An observation for HR 8799 in the angular differential imaging mode shows a clear detection of three known planets, demonstrating the high contrast capability of AO188+HiCIAO.

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) high-contrast adaptive optics system, which is currently under construction for Gemini South, has an IFS as its science instrument. This paper describes the data reduction pipeline of the GPI science instrument. Written in IDL, with a modular architecture, this pipeline reduces an ensemble of highcontrast spectroscopic or polarimetric raw science images and calibration data into a final dataset ready for scientific analysis. It includes speckle suppression techniques such as angular and spectral differential imaging that are necessary to achieve extreme contrast performances for which the instrument is designed. This paper presents also raw GPI IFS simulated data developed to test the pipeline.

We describe a coronagraphic optic for use with CONICA at the VLT that provides suppression of diffraction from 1.8 to 7 λ/D at 4.05 microns, an optimal wavelength for direct imaging of cool extrasolar planets. The optic is designed to provide 10 magnitudes of contrast at 0.2 arcseconds, over a "D" shaped region in the image plane, without the need for any focal plane occulting mask.

An eight-octant phase-mask (EOPM) coronagraph is one of the highest performance coronagraphic concepts, and attains simultaneously high throughput, small inner working angle, and large discovery space. However, its application to ground-based telescopes such as the Subaru Telescope is challenging due to pupil geometry (thick spider vanes and large central obstruction) and residual tip-tilt errors. We show that the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) system, scheduled to be installed onto the Subaru Telescope, includes key technologies which can solve these problems. SCExAO uses a spider removal plate which translates four parts of the pupil with tilted plane parallel plates. The pupil central obstruction can be removed by a pupil remapping system similar to the PIAA optics already in the SCExAO system, which could be redesigned with no amplitude apodization. The EOPM is inserted in the focal plane to divide a stellar image into eight-octant regions, and introduces a π-phase difference between adjacent octants. This causes a self-destructive interference inside the pupil area on a following reimaged pupil plane. By using a reflective mask instead of a conventional opaque Lyot stop, the stellar light diffracted outside the pupil can be used for a coronagraphic low-order wave-front sensor to accurately measure and correct tip-tilt errors. A modified inverse-PIAA system, located behind the reimaged pupil plane, is used to remove off-axis aberrations and deliver a wide field of view. We show that this EOPM coronagraph architecture enables high contrast imaging at small working angle on the Subaru Telescope. Our approach could be generalized to other phase-mask type coronagraphs and other ground-based telescopes.

The optical vortex coronagraph (OVC) is an innovative instrument that can be applied to both space and groundbased telescopes for direct imaging of planets around bright stars. OVC rejects the light of the on-axis star without altering that of off-axis sources, means of a spiral phase plate (SPP) used as a phase modyfing device (PMD). We present the fabrication process made by lithographic nanofabrication and tests for the characterization of two different high-quality SPPs.

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at M¨unchen operates an astrophysical observatory on the summit of Mt. Wendelstein¹ which will be equipped with a modern 2m-class, robotic telescope.² One Nasmyth port of the new Fraunhofer telescope is designed to sustain the excellent (< 0.8" median) seeing of the site [1, Fig. 1] over a FOV of 0.2 deg² utilizing three-element transmissive field corrector optics for optical wavebands. It will be equipped with a camera built around a customized 64 MPixel Mosaic (Spectral Instruments, 4 × (4k)² 15μm e2v CCDs). TheWendelsteinWide Field Imager has two filter wheels with eight slots each (SDSS3 [ugriz] + eight still free) as well as two off-axis guiding units (two FLI Microline with 2k Fairchild CCDs on differential focus stages). A Bonn Shutter4 ensures high precision photometric exposures. An option to either insert a low dispersion grating (for field spectroscopy) or support a wave front sensor probe allows for further expansion of the camera. EMI-safe housing has to overcome the emission of a close by 0.5MW radio station. Special care has been taken to design a very low ghost budget of the overall system to allow for low-surface brightness applications (e.g. weak lensing surveys).

The Physics of the Accelerating Universe (PAU) collaboration aims at conducting a competitive cosmology experiment. For that purpose it is building the PAU Camera (PAUCam) to carry out a wide area survey to study dark energy. PAUCam has been designed to be mounted at the prime focus of the William Herschel Telescope with its current optical corrector that delivers a maximum field of view of ~0.8 square degrees. In order to cover the entire field of view available, the PAUCam focal plane will be populated with a mosaic of eighteen CCD detectors. PAUCam will be equipped with a set of narrow band filters and a set of broad band filters to sample the spectral energy distribution of astronomical objects with photometric techniques equivalent to low resolution spectroscopy. In particular it will be able to determine the redshift of galaxies with good precision and therefore conduct cosmological surveys. PAUCam will also be offered to the broad astronomical community.

The 'IMAKA (Imaging from MAuna KeA) instrument is a wide field visible light imager incorporating Ground Layer Adaptive Optics (GLAO) to take maximum advantage of the excellent seeing available at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). It requires better than 0.3" image quality simultaneously over a total field of view of approximately one square degree (~3 x 10^-4 sr). This requirement along with other criterions and constraints raises a challenge for optical design. The advent of orthogonal transfer (OT) CCDs allows the tip-tilt portion of the atmospheric correction to be performed at the science detector itself. 'IMAKA will take full advantage of the large array mosaics of OTCCDs. Since the size of the adaptive mirror would drive the cost and hence implementation of the overall 'IMAKA instrument, a review of possible optical design configurations which minimize the size (diameter) of the deformable mirror is undertaken. A promising design was obtained and developed in more detail. This all reflective system is described along with its predicted optical performance. An opto-mechanical design concept was developed around this nominal optical design which takes into account various constraints due to its required location on the top end of the Canada France Hawaii Telescope. The design concept is feasible and meets the optical performance requirements.

We describe the science goals, optical and mechanical design, software control, data reduction and current status of a new aperture masking instrument for meter class telescopes. AMASING (Aperture Masking And Speckle ImagiNG) was designed to be a flexible Nasmyth mounted platform for high resolution astronomy at optical wavelengths. The instrument is self guiding and includes cameras for target acquisition and guiding, masked pupil viewing and high frame rate data collection.

The success of the high resolution nightglow studies conducted with the Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea and the Very Large Telescopes in Chile led to the design of the Compact Echelle Spectrograph for Aeronomical Research (CESAR). This is an echelle spectrograph with grating post-dispersion that will be dedicated to nightglow studies at high spectral resolution (R ~ 20000) between 300-1000 nm, and that will be easily deployable at different sites. The development of CESAR is conducted by SRI International, and INO is involved in the optical design and integration of the spectrograph camera, whose all-spherical form is based on the camera of the HIRES spectrograph at the Keck I telescope. The detailed optical design is used to calculate the position of the spectral elements on the detector, predict their image quality, and estimate the level of stray light. This paper presents the methodology used in these analyses.

A project is currently underway to upgrade the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) Mosaic-1 Imager, an 8192 x 8192 pixel CCD array used on the Mayall 4-meter and WIYN 0.9-meter telescopes. Mosaic-1 has been a heavily subscribed instrument by the US astronomical community since it was commissioned more than a decade ago. In recent years, however, the reliability and efficiency of Mosaic-1 has declined due to aging and failing components. In addition, servicing has become more and more difficult as spare parts are used up, replacement parts become unavailable, and technical expertise for the out-dated controller technology diminishes. The Mosaic-1 upgrade project addresses these reliability and servicing concerns by replacing the CCDs with modern detectors and replacing the controllers with a MONSOON image acquisition system. The upgrade will also enhance the scientific productivity of the instrument through reduced read times, lower read noise, and improved quantum efficiency. We will describe the project status, the technical requirements related to the installation of new CCD detectors and MONSOON controllers, the configuration of the system, and integration of the system into the existing instrument and telescope environments.

The Mercator Advanced Imager for Asteroseismology (MAIA) is being designed particularly for asteroseismology of hot subdwarf stars. In order to achieve the required precision on the pulsation amplitude ratios, the photometric variations must be measured simultaneously in several bands with respect to constant reference stars in the field. MAIA is an optical imager to observe simultaneously in three color bands, corresponding approximately with an SDSS u, g, r+i+z photometric system. The fully dioptric design uses a common collimator, two dichroic beam splitters (cut-offs at 390nm and 550nm) and three cameras. MAIA covers a wide field of view (FoV) of 9.4' x 14.1' with a sampling of 0.27"/pix on the 1.2m Mercator Telescope. When replacing the collimator and with a modest reduction of the FoV, its host can also be used on larger telescopes. Each camera holds a fast-frame-transfer charge coupled device (CCD), cooled by three four-stage Peltier elements to -70 °C. The mechanical design minimizes structural flexure. Selected optical elements are mounted in quasi-isostatic lens mounts to minimize the effects of temperature variations.

A novel radiometric all-sky infrared camera [RASICAM] has been constructed to allow automated real-time quantitative assessment of night sky conditions for the Dark Energy Camera [DECam] located on the Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The camera is optimized to detect the position, motion and optical depth of thin, high (8-10km) cirrus clouds and contrails by measuring their apparent temperature above the night sky background. The camera system utilizes a novel wide-field equiresolution catadioptic mirror system that provides sky coverage of 2π azimuth and 14-90° from zenith. Several new technological and design innovations allow the RASICAM system to provide unprecedented cloud detection and IR-based photometricity quantification. The design of the RASICAM system is presented.

QUOTA is an 8Kx8K (16'x16') optical imager using four 4Kx4K orthogonal transfer CCDs arrays (OTAs). Each OTA has 64 nearly independent CCDs having 480x494 12μm pixels. By reading out several of the CCDs rapidly (20 Hz), the centroids of the stars in those CCDs can be used to measure image motion due to atmospheric effects, telescope shake, and guide errors. Motions are fed back to the remaining 250 CCDs that continue to integrate normally, allowing a shift of the collecting charge packets so that they always fall under the moving star images, thereby effecting low order adaptive optics tip/tilt correction in the silicon to improve image quality. As a bonus, the stars that are read rapidly can be studied for high speed photometric variability. QUOTA was conceived to be a prototype for WIYN's 32Kx32K One Degree Imager (ODI), providing a means to test and advance the technical developments for the larger imager (e.g., detectors, controllers, optics, coatings, cooling, and software). QUOTA will have been to the WIYN 3.5-m telescope only twice in its current configuration, but it provided a wealth of information that has been useful to the engineering of ODI. We focus on the areas in which ODI has benefited from QUOTA in this report.

FastCam is an instrument jointly developed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT), designed to obtain high spatial resolution images in the optical wavelength range from ground-based telescopes (http://www.iac.es/proyecto/fastcam and http://www.iac.es/telescopes/Manuales/manualfastcam.pdf). The instrument is equipped with a very low noise and very fast readout speed EMCCD camera which provides short exposure images to an FPGA-based processor which performs the selection, recenterg and combination of images in real-time (applying Lucky Imaging techniques) to provide diffraction limited resolution images in 1-4 m class telescopes from 500 to 1100 nm. IDOM has contributed to this new state-of-the-art instrument with the design of an optomechanical system conceived to maximize the image scale stability of the system for astrometry. The combination of aluminum plates, carbon fiber (CFRP) rods and stainless steel mounts in the optical bench defines an athermalized and stiff design to meet the requirements of thermal and mechanical stability. This work has been done with the support of the Aerospace Subprogramme of the Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and the INTEK programme of the Basque Development Agency (SPRI).

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is the next generation wide-field imager for the prime focus of Subaru Telescope, which is scheduled to receive its first light in 2011. Combined with a newly built wide-field corrector, HSC covers 1.5 degree diameter field of view with 116 fully-depleted CCDs. In this presentation, we summarize the details of the camera design: the wide-field corrector, the prime focus unit, the CCD dewar and the peripheral devices. The wide-field corrector consists of 5 lenses with lateral shift type doublet ADC element. The novel design guarantees the excellent image quality (D₈₀ <0".3) over the field of view. On the focal plane, 116 CCDs are tiled on the cold plate which is made of Silicon Carbide (SiC) and cooled down to -100 degrees by two pulse tube coolers. The system is supported by the prime focus unit which provides a precise motion of the system to align the wide-field corrector and the CCD dewar to the optical axis of the telescope.

The Dark Energy Survey makes use of a new camera, the Dark Energy Camera (DECam). DECam will be installed in the Blanco 4M telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). DECam is presently under construction and is expected to be ready for observations in the fall of 2011. The focal plane will make use of 62 2Kx4K and 12 2kx2k fully depleted Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs) for guiding, alignment and focus. This paper will describe design considerations of the system; including, the entire signal path used to read out the CCDs, the development of a custom crate and backplane, the overall grounding scheme and early results of system tests.

We report on the final design and the fabrication status of LMIRcam - a mid-infrared imager/spectrograph that will operate behind the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) primarily at wavelengths between 3 and 5um (the astronomical L- and M-bands). Within LMIRcam a pair of diamond-turned biconic mirrors re-images a ten arcsecond square field onto a 1024x1024 HAWAII-1RG 5.1um cutoff array. The re-imaging optics provide two pupil planes for the placement of filters and grisms as well as an intermediate image plane. Flexible readout electronics enable operating modes ranging from high frame rate broadband imaging at the longest wavelengths to low background R=400 spectroscopy at shorter wavelengths. The LBTI will provide LMIRcam with a diffraction limited two-mirror PSF with first null dictated by the 14.4 meter separation of the two LBT mirror centers (22.8 meter baseline from edge to edge).

The Dark Energy Camera is a new prime-focus instrument to be delivered to the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in 2011. Construction is in-progress at this time at Fermilab. In order to verify that the camera meets technical specifications for the Dark Energy Survey and to reduce the time required to commission the instrument while it is on the telescope, we are constructing a "Telescope Simulator" and performing full system testing prior to shipping to CTIO. This presentation will describe the Telescope Simulator and how we use it to verify some of the technical specifications.

We have developed a near infrared camera called ANIR (Atacama Near InfraRed camera) for the University of Tokyo Atacama 1.0m telescope installed at the summit of Co. Chajnantor (5640m altitude) in northern Chile. The camera is based on a PACE HAWAII-2 array with an Offner relay optics for re-imaging, and field of view is 5. 3 × 5. 3 with pixel scale of 0. 31/pix. It is also capable of optical/infrared simultaneous imaging by inserting a dichroic mirror before the focal plane. The high altitude and extremely low water vapor (PWV=0.5mm) of the site enables us to perform observation of hydrogen Paschenα (Paα) emission line at 1.8751 μm. The first light observation was carried out in July 2009, and we have successfully obtained Paα images of the Galactic center using the N1875 narrow-band filter. This is the first success of Paα imaging of a Galactic object from a ground based telescope. System efficiencies for the broad-band filters are measured to be 15% at the J-band and 30% at Ks, while that of the N1875 narrow-band filter, corresponding to Paα; wavelength, varies from 8 to 15%, which may be caused by fluctuation of the atmospheric transmittance. ATRAN simulation suggests that this corresponds to PWV of 0.3 - 1.5mm, consistent with previous results of the site testing. Measured seeing size is median ~0. 8, corresponding to the real seeing value of 0. 6 - 0. 8. These results demonstrates the excellent capability of the site for infrared observations.

AMICA is a double-armed camera designed to perform NIR/ MIR (2-28 μm) Astronomy from Antarctica. It will be installed at Dome C in 2010-2011. An overview of the instrument is given, with attention to the following features: 1) Winterization: AMICA has been tested under Antarctic conditions to be operated in severe environments; 2) Automation: AMICA does not require human intervention; 3) Fast acquisition: AMICA can get images with exposure times less than 3 msec; 4) Survey-mode observations: the low background in Antarctica allows AMICA to have FOVs of 2.29 arcmin (NIR) and 2.89 arcmin (MIR), without saturation even with wide-band filters.

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is a new fully-automated, wide-field survey conducting a systematic exploration of the optical transient sky. The transient survey is performed using a new 8.1 square degree, 101 megapixel camera installed on the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory. The PTF Camera achieved first light at the end of 2008, completed commissioning in July 2009, and is now in routine science operations. The camera is based on the CFH12K camera, and was extensively modified for use on the 48-inch telescope. A field-flattening curved window was installed, the cooling system was re-engineered and upgraded to closed-cycle, custom shutter and filter exchanger mechanisms were added, new custom control software was written, and many other modifications were made. We here describe the performance of these new systems during the first year of Palomar Transient Factory operations, including a detailed and long term on-sky performance characterization. We also describe lessons learned during the construction and commissioning of the upgraded camera, the photometric and astrometric precision currently achieved with the PTF camera, and briefly summarize the first supernova results from the PTF survey.

The WIYN High Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC) has been a general-use instrument at the WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak since 2008. WHIRC is a near-infrared (0.8 - 2.5 μm) camera with a filter complement of J, H, Ks broadband and 10 narrowband filters, utilizing a 2048 × 2048 HgCdTe array from Raytheon's VIRGO line, developed for the VISTA project. The compact on-axis refractive optical design makes WHIRC the smallest near-IR camera with this capability. WHIRC is installed on the WIYN Tip-Tilt Module (WTTM) port and can achieve near diffraction-limited imaging with a FWHM of ~0.25 arcsec at Ks with active WTTM correction and routinely delivers ~0.6 arcsec FWHM images without WTTM correction. During its first year of general use operation at WIYN, WHIRC has been used for high definition near-infrared imaging studies of a wide range of astronomical phenomena including star formation regions, stellar populations and interstellar medium in nearby galaxies, high-z galaxies and transient phenomena. We discuss performance and data reduction issues such as distortion, pupil ghost, and fringe removal and the development of new tools for the observing community such as an exposure time calculator and data reduction pipeline.

Ground-based mid-infrared observations have two distinct advantages over space observations despite relatively lower sensitivity. One is the high spatial resolution and the other is the monitoring capability. These advantages can be emphasized particularly for the next coming ground-based infrared project University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO). Thanks to the low water vapor of the TAO site (5,640m) and the large aperture of the telescope (6.5meter), we can observe at 30 micron with a spatial resolution of 1 arcsec. It is about ten times higher than that of current space telescopes. The TAO is also useful for monitoring observations because of the ample observing time. To take these advantages we are now developing a new mid-infrared infrared instrument for the TAO 6.5-meter telescope. This covers a wide wavelength range from 2 to 38 micron with three detectors (Si:As, Si:Sb, and InSb). Diffraction limited spatial resolution can be achieved at wavelengths longer than 7 micron. Low-resolution spectroscopy can also be carried out with grisms. This instrument equips a newly invented "field stacker" for monitoring observations. It is an optical system that consists of two movable pick-up mirrors and a triangle shaped mirror, and combine two discrete fields of the telescope into camera's field of view. It will enable us to apply a differential photometry method and dramatically improve the accuracy and increase the feasibility of the monitoring observations at the mid-infrared wavelengths.

The Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at M¨unchen operates an astrophysical observatory on the summit of Mt. Wendelstein1 which will be equipped with a modern 2m-class, robotic telescope.² One Nasmyth port of the new Fraunhofer telescope is designed to deliver the excellent (< 0.8" median) seeing of the site [1, Fig. 1] for a smaller FoV of 60 arcmin2 without any corrector optics at optical and NIR wavebands. Thus, it will be optimized for fast multi-wavelength follow-up observations of targets of opportunities (e.g. Gamma-Ray-bursts) or efficient photometric redshift determinations of huge numbers of galaxy clusters identified in optical (PanSTARRS), SZ (Planck) or X-ray (eROSITA) surveys. We present the design of a compact 3 channel camera which serves these science requirements, built partly from commercially available Fairchild-2k optical CCD³ cameras (Apogee), coupled with small Bonn Shutters,⁴ and mounted on commercial high precision linear stages for differential focusing. A specially designed beam-splitter system maintains the high optical quality. The NIR camera is built in cooperation with the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii. The combined operation of this camera with two spectrographs at the same telescope port has already been presented at SPIE 2008.⁵

The Physics of the Accelerating Universe (PAU) is a new project whose main goal is to study dark energy surveying the galaxy distribution. For that purpose we need to determine the galaxy redshifts. The most accurate way to determine the redshift of a galaxy and measure its spectral energy distribution (SED) is achieved with spectrographs. The PAU collaboration is building an instrument (PAUCam) devoted to perform a large area survey for cosmological studies using an alternative approach. SEDs are sampled and redshifts determined using narrow band filter photometry. For efficiency and manufacturability considerations, the filters need to be placed close to the CCD detector surfaces on segmented filter trays. The most innovative element of PAUCam is a set of 16 different exchangeable trays to support the filters arranged in a jukebox-like changing mechanism inside the cryostat. The device is designed to operate within the range of temperatures from 150K to 300K at the absolute pressure of 10^-8mbar, being class-100 compliant.

The focus and alignment system of the prime focus Dark Energy Camera (DECam), for the Dark Energy Survey at the CTIO 4 meter Blanco telescope, is described. DECam includes eight 2K by 2K CCDs placed 1.5mm extra- and intra-focally for active control of focus and alignment, as well as for wavefront measurement. We describe an algorithm for out-of-focus star (donut) image analysis and present results on the use of donuts for focus and alignment. Results will be presented for both simulated DECam images and for images taken at the Blanco 4 meter with the current MosaicII camera.

Large mosaic multiCCD camera is the key instrument for modern digital sky survey. DECam is an extremely red sensitive 520 Megapixel camera designed for the incoming Dark Energy Survey (DES). It is consist of sixty two 4k2k and twelve 2k2k 250-micron thick fully-depleted CCDs, with a focal plane of 44 cm in diameter and a eld of view of 2.2 square degree. It will be attached to the Blanco 4-meter telescope at CTIO. The DES will cover 5000 square-degrees of the southern galactic cap in 5 color bands (g, r, i, z, Y) in 5 years starting from 2011. To achieve the science goal of constraining the Dark Energy evolution, stringent requirements are laid down for the design of DECam. Among them, the atness of the focal plane needs to be controlled within a 60-micron envelope in order to achieve the specied PSF variation limit. It is very challenging to measure the atness of the focal plane to such precision when it is placed in a high vacuum dewar at 173 K. We developed two image based techniques to measure the atness of the focal plane. By imaging a regular grid of dots on the focal plane, the CCD oset along the optical axis is converted to the variation the grid spacings at dierent positions on the focal plane. After extracting the patterns and comparing the change in spacings, we can measure the atness to high precision. In method 1, the regular dots are kept in high sub micron precision and cover the whole focal plane. In method 2, no high precision for the grid is required. Instead, we use a precise XY stage moves the pattern across the whole focal plane and comparing the variations of the spacing when it is imaged by dierent CCDs. Simulation and real measurements show that the two methods work very well for our purpose, and are in good agreement with the direct optical measurements.

PANIC, the Panoramic Near-Infrared Camera, is a new instrument for the Calar Alto Observatory. A 4x4 k detector yields a field of view of 0.5x0.5 degrees at a pixel scale of 0.45 arc sec/pixel at the 2.2m telescope. PANIC can be used also at the 3.5m telescope with half the pixel scale. The optics consists of 9 lenses and 3 folding mirrors. Mechanical tolerances are as small as 50 microns for some elements. PANIC will have a low thermal background due to cold stops. Read-out is done with MPIA's own new electronics which allows read-out of 132 channels in parallel. Weight and size limits lead to interesting design features. Here we describe the opto-mechanical design.