2010/08/06 by S. Becerril, K. Meisenheimer, Becerril, S. +13
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1008.1227
arxiv created 2010/08/06 · arxiv updated 2010/08/09
XMS is a multi-channel wide-field spectrograph designed for the prime focus of the 3.5m Calar-Alto telescope. The instrument is composed by four quadrants, each of which contains a spectrograph channel. An innovative mechanical design -at concept/preliminary stage- has been implemented to: 1) Minimize the separation between the channels to achieve maximal filling factor; 2) Cope with the very constraining space and mass overall requirements; 3) Achieve very tight alignment tolerances; 4) Provide lens self-centering under large temperature excursions; 5) Provide masks including 4000 slits (edges thinner than 100μ). An overview of this extremely challenging mechanical design is here presented.