Publications (17)
Infrared Remote Sensing Using Low Noise Avalanche Photodiode Detector
Joice Mathew, James Gilbert, Robert Sharp +3
For a remote sensing optical payload to achieve a Ground Sampling Distance of ~ 10-30 m, a critical problem is platform-induced motion blur. While forward motion compensation can r…
Starbug fibre positioning robots: performance and reliability enhancements
David M. Brown, Scott Case, James Gilbert +9
Starbugs are miniature piezoelectric walking robots that can be operated in parallel to position many payloads like optical fibers across a telescopes focal plane. They consist of…
The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer Book 2018
Alexis Hill, Nicolas Flagey, Alan McConnachie +122
(Abridged) This is the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer 2018 book. It is intended as a concise reference guide to all aspects of the scientific and technical design of MSE, for the…
The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation
Shoko Jin, Scott C. Trager, Gavin B. Dalton +212
WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree…
Verification of commercial motor performance for WEAVE at the William Herschel Telescope
James Gilbert, Gavin Dalton, Ian Lewis
WEAVE is a 1000-fiber multi-object spectroscopic facility for the 4.2~m William Herschel Telescope. It will feature a double-headed pick-and-place fiber positioning robot comprisin…
Astro2020 Activity, Project of State of the Profession Consideration (APC) White Paper: All-Sky Near Infrared Space Astrometry. State of the Profession Considerations: Development of Scanning NIR Detectors for Astronomy
David Hobbs, Christopher Leitz, Jo Bartlett +11
Gaia is a revolutionary space mission developed by ESA and is delivering 5 parameter astrometry, photometry and radial velocities over the whole sky with astrometric accuracies dow…
Project overview and update on WEAVE: the next generation wide-field spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope
Gavin Dalton, Scott Trager, Don Carlos Abrams +50
We present an overview of and status report on the WEAVE next-generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). WEAVE principally targets optical ground-ba…
Veloce Rosso: Australia's new precision radial velocity spectrograph
James Gilbert, Christoph Bergmann, Gabe Bloxham +24
Veloce is an ultra-stable fibre-fed R4 echelle spectrograph for the 3.9 m Anglo-Australian Telescope. The first channel to be commissioned, Veloce 'Rosso', utilises multiple low-co…
Echidna Mark II: one giant leap for 'tilting spine' fibre positioning technology
James Gilbert, Gavin Dalton
The Australian Astronomical Observatory's 'tilting spine' fibre positioning technology has been redeveloped to provide superior performance in a smaller package. The new design off…
The first SPIE software Hack Day
Sarah Kendrew, Casey Deen, Nicole Radziwill +4
We report here on the software Hack Day organised at the 2014 SPIE conference on Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation in Montreal. The first ever Hack Day to take place at a…
Sphinx: a massively multiplexed fiber positioner for MSE
Scott Smedley, Gabriella Baker, Rebecca Brown +6
In this paper we present the Australian Astronomical Observatory's concept design for Sphinx - a fiber positioned with 4332 spines on a 7.77mm pitch for CFHT's Mauna Kea Spectrosco…
'MOHAWK' : a 4000-fiber positioner for DESpec
Will Saunders, Greg Smith, James Gilbert +6
We present a concept for a 4000-fibre positioner for DESpec, based on the Echidna 'tilting spine' technology. The DESpec focal plane is 450mm across and curved, and the required pi…
Beating the Heat! Automated Characterization of Piezoelectric Tubes for Starbugs
Rafal Piersiak, Michael Goodwin, James Gilbert +1
The Australian Astronomical Observatory has extensively prototyped a new robotic positioner to allow simultaneous positioning of optical fibers at the focal plane called 'Starbugs'…
Emu: A Case Study for TDI-like Imaging for Infrared Observation from Space
Joice Mathew, James Gilbert, Robert Sharp +14
A wide-field zenith-looking telescope operating in a mode similar to Time-Delay-Integration (TDI) or drift scan imaging can perform an infrared sky survey without active pointing c…
Linear-mode avalanche photodiode arrays for low-noise near-infrared imaging in space
James Gilbert, Alexey Grigoriev, Shanae King +3
Astronomical observations often require the detection of faint signals in the presence of noise, and the near-infrared regime is no exception. In particular, where the application…
Learning from history: Adaptive calibration of 'tilting spine' fiber positioners
James Gilbert, Gavin Dalton
This paper discusses a new approach for determining the calibration parameters of independently-actuated optical fibers in multi-object astronomical fiber positioning systems. This…
Starbugs: all-singing, all-dancing fibre positioning robots
James Gilbert, Michael Goodwin, Jeroen Heijmans +7
Starbugs are miniature piezoelectric 'walking' robots with the ability to simultaneously position many optical fibres across a telescope's focal plane. Their simple design incorpor…