Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope

Julia J. Bryant; Sree Oh; Madusha Gunawardhana; Gabriella Quattropani; Gurashish Singh Bhatia; Joss Bland-Hawthorn; David Broderick; Rebecca Brown; Robert Content; Scott Croom; Fred Crous; Tony Farrell; Peter Gillingham; Ellen Houston; Jon Lawrence; Helen McGregor; Seong-Sik Minh; Mahesh Mohanan; Barnaby Norris; Matthew Owers; Naveen Pai; David Robertson; Will Saunders; Sam Vaughan; Sudharshan Venkatesan; Adeline Wang; Ross Zhelem; Jessica Zheng

doi:10.1117/12.3016340

Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope

Julia J. Bryant^*, Sree Oh, Madusha Gunawardhana, Gabriella Quattropani, Gurashish Singh Bhatia, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, David Broderick, Rebecca Brown, Robert Content, Scott Croom, Fred Crous, Tony Farrell, Peter Gillingham, Ellen Houston, Jon Lawrence, Helen McGregor, Seong-Sik Minh, Mahesh Mohanan, Barnaby Norris, Matthew OwersNaveen Pai, David Robertson, Will Saunders, Sam Vaughan, Sudharshan Venkatesan, Adeline Wang, Ross Zhelem, Jessica Zheng

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution › peer-review

Abstract

Hector is a new optical integral field spectrograph (IFS) instrument built by Astralis - Australia's Astronomical Instrumentation Consortium. Hector was commissioned on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 2022. In 2023 it began a 15,000-galaxy IFS survey of nearby z< 0.1 galaxies. The high fill-factor imaging fibre bundles 'hexabundles' of the type used on the SAMI instrument, have been improved and enlarged to cover up to 27-arcsec diameter. The aim is to reach 2 effective radii on most galaxies. Hector has a unique and novel robotic positioner that compensates for varying telecentricity over the 2-degree-field of the AAT to recoup the light loss and correct the focus across the field. Hector has 21 hexabundles over that 2-degree field feeding both the new Hector spectrograph (Spector) and existing AAOmega spectrograph. The new dual-arm Spector spectrograph has the highest spectral resolution of any large IFS nearby galaxy survey of 1.3 Angstrom. This is key to enable higher order stellar kinematics to be measured on a larger fraction of galaxies and to link those galaxies to the large-scale environments in which they form. A data reduction pipeline has been developed and is producing science-quality galaxy cubes and the first internal data release is now being used for science.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X
Editors	Julia J. Bryant, Kentaro Motohara, Joël R. Vernet
Place of Publication	Washington
Publisher	SPIE
Pages	1-11
Number of pages	11
ISBN (Electronic)	9781510675162
ISBN (Print)	9781510675155
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3016340
Publication status	Published - 2024
Event	Ground-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X 2024 - Yokohama, Japan Duration: 16 Jun 2024 → 21 Jun 2024

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of SPIE
Publisher	SPIE
Volume	13096
ISSN (Print)	0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)	1996-756X

Conference

Conference	Ground-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X 2024
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Yokohama
Period	16/06/24 → 21/06/24

Keywords

IFU
Hector
IFS
hexabundles
fibre positioner
AAT
spectroscopy
galaxy evolution

Access to Document

10.1117/12.3016340

Cite this

Bryant, J. J., Oh, S., Gunawardhana, M., Quattropani, G., Bhatia, G. S., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Broderick, D., Brown, R., Content, R., Croom, S., Crous, F., Farrell, T., Gillingham, P., Houston, E., Lawrence, J., McGregor, H., Minh, S.-S., Mohanan, M., Norris, B., ... Zheng, J. (2024). Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope. In J. J. Bryant, K. Motohara, & J. R. Vernet (Eds.), Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X (pp. 1-11). Article 130960D (Proceedings of SPIE; Vol. 13096). SPIE. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3016340

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title = "Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope",

abstract = "Hector is a new optical integral field spectrograph (IFS) instrument built by Astralis - Australia's Astronomical Instrumentation Consortium. Hector was commissioned on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 2022. In 2023 it began a 15,000-galaxy IFS survey of nearby z< 0.1 galaxies. The high fill-factor imaging fibre bundles 'hexabundles' of the type used on the SAMI instrument, have been improved and enlarged to cover up to 27-arcsec diameter. The aim is to reach 2 effective radii on most galaxies. Hector has a unique and novel robotic positioner that compensates for varying telecentricity over the 2-degree-field of the AAT to recoup the light loss and correct the focus across the field. Hector has 21 hexabundles over that 2-degree field feeding both the new Hector spectrograph (Spector) and existing AAOmega spectrograph. The new dual-arm Spector spectrograph has the highest spectral resolution of any large IFS nearby galaxy survey of 1.3 Angstrom. This is key to enable higher order stellar kinematics to be measured on a larger fraction of galaxies and to link those galaxies to the large-scale environments in which they form. A data reduction pipeline has been developed and is producing science-quality galaxy cubes and the first internal data release is now being used for science.",

keywords = "IFU, Hector, IFS, hexabundles, fibre positioner, AAT, spectroscopy, galaxy evolution",

author = "Bryant, {Julia J.} and Sree Oh and Madusha Gunawardhana and Gabriella Quattropani and Bhatia, {Gurashish Singh} and Joss Bland-Hawthorn and David Broderick and Rebecca Brown and Robert Content and Scott Croom and Fred Crous and Tony Farrell and Peter Gillingham and Ellen Houston and Jon Lawrence and Helen McGregor and Seong-Sik Minh and Mahesh Mohanan and Barnaby Norris and Matthew Owers and Naveen Pai and David Robertson and Will Saunders and Sam Vaughan and Sudharshan Venkatesan and Adeline Wang and Ross Zhelem and Jessica Zheng",

year = "2024",

doi = "10.1117/12.3016340",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781510675155",

series = "Proceedings of SPIE",

publisher = "SPIE",

pages = "1--11",

editor = "Bryant, {Julia J.} and Kentaro Motohara and Vernet, {Jo{\"e}l R.}",

booktitle = "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X",

address = "United States",

note = "Ground-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X 2024 ; Conference date: 16-06-2024 Through 21-06-2024",

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Bryant, JJ, Oh, S, Gunawardhana, M, Quattropani, G, Bhatia, GS, Bland-Hawthorn, J, Broderick, D, Brown, R, Content, R, Croom, S, Crous, F, Farrell, T, Gillingham, P, Houston, E, Lawrence, J, McGregor, H, Minh, S-S, Mohanan, M, Norris, B, Owers, M, Pai, N, Robertson, D, Saunders, W, Vaughan, S, Venkatesan, S, Wang, A, Zhelem, R & Zheng, J 2024, Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope. in JJ Bryant, K Motohara & JR Vernet (eds), Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X., 130960D, Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 13096, SPIE, Washington, pp. 1-11, Ground-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X 2024, Yokohama, Japan, 16/06/24. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3016340

Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope. / Bryant, Julia J.; Oh, Sree; Gunawardhana, Madusha et al.
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X. ed. / Julia J. Bryant; Kentaro Motohara; Joël R. Vernet. Washington: SPIE, 2024. p. 1-11 130960D (Proceedings of SPIE; Vol. 13096).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution › peer-review

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AU - Gunawardhana, Madusha

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AU - Bhatia, Gurashish Singh

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AU - Brown, Rebecca

AU - Content, Robert

AU - Croom, Scott

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AU - McGregor, Helen

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AU - Mohanan, Mahesh

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AU - Pai, Naveen

AU - Robertson, David

AU - Saunders, Will

AU - Vaughan, Sam

AU - Venkatesan, Sudharshan

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AU - Zhelem, Ross

AU - Zheng, Jessica

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N2 - Hector is a new optical integral field spectrograph (IFS) instrument built by Astralis - Australia's Astronomical Instrumentation Consortium. Hector was commissioned on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 2022. In 2023 it began a 15,000-galaxy IFS survey of nearby z< 0.1 galaxies. The high fill-factor imaging fibre bundles 'hexabundles' of the type used on the SAMI instrument, have been improved and enlarged to cover up to 27-arcsec diameter. The aim is to reach 2 effective radii on most galaxies. Hector has a unique and novel robotic positioner that compensates for varying telecentricity over the 2-degree-field of the AAT to recoup the light loss and correct the focus across the field. Hector has 21 hexabundles over that 2-degree field feeding both the new Hector spectrograph (Spector) and existing AAOmega spectrograph. The new dual-arm Spector spectrograph has the highest spectral resolution of any large IFS nearby galaxy survey of 1.3 Angstrom. This is key to enable higher order stellar kinematics to be measured on a larger fraction of galaxies and to link those galaxies to the large-scale environments in which they form. A data reduction pipeline has been developed and is producing science-quality galaxy cubes and the first internal data release is now being used for science.

AB - Hector is a new optical integral field spectrograph (IFS) instrument built by Astralis - Australia's Astronomical Instrumentation Consortium. Hector was commissioned on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 2022. In 2023 it began a 15,000-galaxy IFS survey of nearby z< 0.1 galaxies. The high fill-factor imaging fibre bundles 'hexabundles' of the type used on the SAMI instrument, have been improved and enlarged to cover up to 27-arcsec diameter. The aim is to reach 2 effective radii on most galaxies. Hector has a unique and novel robotic positioner that compensates for varying telecentricity over the 2-degree-field of the AAT to recoup the light loss and correct the focus across the field. Hector has 21 hexabundles over that 2-degree field feeding both the new Hector spectrograph (Spector) and existing AAOmega spectrograph. The new dual-arm Spector spectrograph has the highest spectral resolution of any large IFS nearby galaxy survey of 1.3 Angstrom. This is key to enable higher order stellar kinematics to be measured on a larger fraction of galaxies and to link those galaxies to the large-scale environments in which they form. A data reduction pipeline has been developed and is producing science-quality galaxy cubes and the first internal data release is now being used for science.

KW - IFU

KW - Hector

KW - IFS

KW - hexabundles

KW - fibre positioner

KW - AAT

KW - spectroscopy

KW - galaxy evolution

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M3 - Conference proceeding contribution

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T3 - Proceedings of SPIE

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BT - Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X

A2 - Bryant, Julia J.

A2 - Motohara, Kentaro

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Bryant JJ, Oh S, Gunawardhana M, Quattropani G, Bhatia GS, Bland-Hawthorn J et al. Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope. In Bryant JJ, Motohara K, Vernet JR, editors, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X. Washington: SPIE. 2024. p. 1-11. 130960D. (Proceedings of SPIE). doi: 10.1117/12.3016340

Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Hector-1: completing the revolutionary multi integral field spectrograph

Hector-1: Completing a revolutionary machine to unravel how galaxies evolve

Hector - a revolutionary spectrograph for understanding how galaxies evolve

Cite this

Hector - performance of the new integral field spectrograph instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Projects

Hector-1: completing the revolutionary multi integral field spectrograph

Hector-1: Completing a revolutionary machine to unravel how galaxies evolve

Hector - a revolutionary spectrograph for understanding how galaxies evolve

Cite this