Replicated spectrographs in astronomy

Abstract

AbstractAs telescope apertures increase, the challenge of scaling spectrographic astronomical instruments becomes acute. The next generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs) strain the availability of glass blanks for optics and engineering to provide sufficient mechanical stability. While breaking the relationship between telescope diameter and instrument pupil size by adaptive optics is a clear path for small fields of view, survey instruments exploiting multiplex advantages will be pressed to find cost-effective solutions. In this review we argue that exploiting the full potential of ELTs will require the barrier of the cost and engineering difficulty of monolithic instruments to be broken by the use of large-scale replication of spectrographs. The first steps in this direction have already been taken with the soon to be commissioned MUSE and VIRUS instruments for the Very Large Telescope and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, respectively. MUSE employs 24 spectrograph channels, while VIRUS has 150 channels. We compare the information gathering power of these replicated instruments with the present state of the art in more traditional spectrographs, and with instruments under development for ELTs. Design principles for replication are explored along with lessons learned, and we look forward to future technologies that could make massively-replicated instruments even more compelling.