Introduction to Visible and NIR Spectrograph Design and Development for Astronomy

Level: Introductory Length: 7 hours Format: In-Person Lecture Intended Audience: The material presented in this course is intended for anyone who is developing an astronomical spectrograph or who wants to understand the various constraints, trade-offs and system-level decisions that go into the design of a visible/NIR spectrograph in order to optimize for performance. This course is ideal for a first-time instrument PI as well as graduate students and engineers who will be part of an astronomical-spectrograph development team. Description: This course provides attendees with an introduction to aerial spectrograph design and development for astronomy. The course concentrates on system configurations and performance optimization and analysis. Specific concepts to be addressed include: image quality, throughput, flexure, performance modeling and system testing. Learning Outcomes; This course will enable you to: - identify the fundamental optical and mechanical principles that affect spectrograph performance - construct different first-order design configurations that achieve a desired resolution and field-of-view - compare the relative merits of different component designs - specify optical components for vendor quote and fabrication - judge whether various vendor acceptance tests are sufficient - design efficient end-to-end testing for your spectrograph Instructor(s): Andrew Sheinis is the Head of Instrumentation at the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) in Sydney Australia. He has been involved in optical system design and engineering for over 25 years. He is currently the PI for the HERMES Spectrograph, designed primarily for the GALAH Galactic Archeology Survey and recently commissioned at the AAT. In addition, he has developed instruments for the SALT Telescope, Lick Observatory, Keck Observatory and the University of Hawaii as well as medical and defense applications in industry. Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2018 Course Held: 11 June 2018