The Multi-Object, Fiber-Fed Spectrographs for SDSS and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
Abstract
We present the design and performance of the multi-object fiber spectrographs for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and their upgrade for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Originally commissioned in Fall 1999 on the 2.5-m aperture Sloan Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, the spectrographs produced more than 1.5 million spectra for the SDSS and SDSS-II surveys, enabling a wide variety of Galactic and extra-galactic science including the first observation of baryon acoustic oscillations in 2005. The spectrographs were upgraded in 2009 and are currently in use for BOSS, the flagship survey of the third-generation SDSS-III project. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.35 million massive galaxies to redshift 0.7 and Lyman-alpha absorption of 160,000 high redshift quasars over 10,000 square degrees of sky, making percent level measurements of the absolute cosmic distance scale of the Universe and placing tight constraints on the equation of state of dark energy. The twin multi-object fiber spectrographs utilize a simple optical layout with reflective collimators, gratings, all-refractive cameras, and state-of-the-art CCD detectors to produce hundreds of spectra simultaneously in two channels over a bandpass covering the near ultraviolet to the near infrared, with a resolving power R = \lambda/FWHM ~ 2000. Building on proven heritage, the spectrographs were upgraded for BOSS with volume-phase holographic gratings and modern CCD detectors, improving the peak throughput by nearly a factor of two, extending the bandpass to cover 360 < \lambda < 1000 nm, and increasing the number of fibers from 640 to 1000 per exposure. In this paper we describe the original SDSS spectrograph design and the upgrades implemented for BOSS, and document the predicted and measured performances.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1208.2233,
title = {The Multi-Object, Fiber-Fed Spectrographs for SDSS and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey},
author = {Stephen Smee and James E. Gunn and Alan Uomoto and Natalie Roe and David Schlegel and Constance M. Rockosi and Michael A. Carr and French Leger and Kyle S. Dawson and Matthew D. Olmstead and Jon Brinkmann and Russell Owen and Robert H. Barkhouser and Klaus Honscheid and Paul Harding and Dan Long and Robert H. Lupton and Craig Loomis and Lauren Anderson and James Annis and Mariangela Bernardi and Vaishali Bhardwaj and Dmitry Bizyaev and Adam S. Bolton and Howard Brewington and John W. Briggs and Scott Burles and James G. Burns and Francisco Castander and Andrew Connolly and James R. Davenport and Garrett Ebelke and Harland Epps and Paul D. Feldman and Scott Friedman and Joshua Frieman and Timothy Heckman and Charles L. Hull and Gillian R. Knapp and David M. Lawrence and Jon Loveday and Edward J. Mannery and Elena Malanushenko and Viktor Malanushenko and Aronne Merrelli and Demitri Muna and Peter Newman and Robert C. Nichol and Daniel Oravetz and Kaike Pan and Adrian C. Pope and Paul G. Ricketts and Alaina Shelden and Dale Sandford and Walter Siegmund and Audrey Simmons and D. Smith and Stephanie Snedden and Donald P. Schneider and Michael Strauss and Mark SubbaRao and Christy Tremonti and Patrick Waddell and Donald G. York},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1208.2233},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
43 pages, 42 figures, revised according to referee report and accepted by AJ. Provides background for the instrument responsible for SDSS and BOSS spectra. 4th in a series of survey technical papers released in Summer 2012, including arXiv:1207.7137 (DR9), arXiv:1207.7326 (Spectral Classification), and arXiv:1208.0022 (BOSS Overview)