Astrometric Calibration and Performance of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Focal Plane

Abstract

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, consisting of 5020 robotic fiber positioners and associated systems on the Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona, is carrying out a survey to measure the spectra of 40 million galaxies and quasars and produce the largest 3D map of the universe to date. The primary science goal is to use baryon acoustic oscillations to measure the expansion history of the universe and the time evolution of dark energy. A key function of the online control system is to position each fiber on a particular target in the focal plane with an accuracy of 11$\mu$m rms 2-D. This paper describes the set of software programs used to perform this function along with the methods used to validate their performance.

arXiv comment27 pages, 16 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• The DESI Experiment Part I: Science,Targeting, and Survey Design
• Overview of the Instrumentation for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
• The Anglo-Australian Observatory's 2dF Facility
• The DESI Experiment Part II: Instrument Design
• The Robotic Multi-Object Focal Plane System of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)
• Astrometric calibration and performance of the Dark Energy Camera
• Gemini Planet Imager Observational Calibrations VIII: Characterization and Role of Satellite Spots
• The Optical Corrector for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
• Survey Operations for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
• Non-axisymmetric aberration patterns from wide-field telescopes using spin-weighted Zernike Polynomials