Future Instrumentation for RAVE

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Future instrumentationfor RAVE
Fred Watson, AAO
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6dF field change routine

• Complete final exposure, centre field plate and
  disable autoguider from downstairs control room
• Slew telescope to access park from upstairs
  console
• Expose arc and flat from downstairs control room
• Remove field plate from telescope upstairs
• Load new field plate into telescope
• Move old one to robot room
• Open telescope shutter
• Expose arc and flat from downstairs control room
• Acquire field from upstairs console
• Acquire guide star from downstairs control room
• Begin exposure sequence on new field
• Total dead time 35-50 minutes

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6dF field change routine
Field park/reconfiguration time 50 mins with 90
fibres 65 mins with 120 fibres Moral is that 6dF
is not well-suited to frequent field changes (But
observers get very fit)
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6dF field change routine
Field change with a hypothetical on-telescope
robot (plus an upgraded telescope control system
and a temperature-stabilised spectrograph room)

• Complete final exposure and disable autoguider
• Slew telescope to new field while reconfiguring
  fibres
• Acquire new field
• Acquire guide star
• Begin exposure sequence on new field
• All from downstairs control room
• Estimated dead time 7-10 minutes

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Possibilities for robot

• Two types of solution
• Modest ideas, involving no major modifications
  to the telescope (i.e. using a 6dF-sized field
  plate and the existing spectrograph)
• Radical ideas, involving reconstruction of the
  focal surface support and a new spectrograph
  (i.e. UKidna)
• One item common to both is a focal surface
  imaging camera located in the mirror perforation

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Modest possibilities - I
Will Saunders suggestion LAMOST-like fibre
positioning
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Modest possibilities - II
FW suggestion use Starbugs technology currently
under development by AAO (but with limited patrol
area so no retractors needed)
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Modest possibilities

• Both would have 100-200 fibres but with more
  efficient data collection (factor gtgt2 greater
  than 6dF) and minimal fibre breakage.
• LAMOST-type completely new technology no IP
  issues, therefore good opportunities for
  collaboration. But starting from scratch
• Starbugs is under development by AAO for ELT
  programs, but the technology is immature
• Neither option is cheap or quick

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Back to UKidna

• UKidna would increase RAVE data collection rate
  by a factor of 30-40
• 2250 fibres
• Minimal field reconfiguration time (5 mins)
• Rapid field acquisition (5 mins)
• Uses proven AAO Echidna spine technology
• Echidna (for FMOS on Subaru) completed, but not
  yet operational due to delays with the fibre
  feeds (external work)

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Back to UKidna

• Survey target would be up to 30 million stars
• Estimated costs
• Telescope modifications 0.3M
• UKidna positioner 2.5M
• Spectrograph and software 1.5M
• Total 4.3M
• Recurrent costs equivalent to 11 cents/star
  compared with current 3.86 /star
• Target philanthropists, GAIA, organised crime..?

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Even more radically

• Do we need to look at a different telescope?
• Bigger aperture could enable funding for UKidna
• MS suggests Vista