The LFAST 0.76m primary mirrors: mass production, active control and on-sky performance

  • Warren B. Foster
  • , Roger Angel
  • , Chad F. Bender
  • , Nick Didato
  • , Kevin Gilliam
  • , Peter Gray
  • , Yiyang Huang
  • , Dean Ketelsen
  • , Andrew J. Monson
  • , Jason Patrou
  • , Melanie Sisco
  • , Richard W. Wortley

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The Large Fiber Array Spectroscopic Telescope (LFAST) pursues large collecting aperture at low cost. Arrays of 0.76m, f/3.5 mirrors will focus light into fibers that are combined at a high-resolution spectrograph. The mirror substrates are fabricated from 25.4mm thick Schott Borofloat® discs in a one week slump and polish process that leaves less than 80nm rms wavefront error in medium and high spatial frequency modes. Low-order figure errors are corrected with a perimeter ring of thermoelectric controllers that induce expansion or contraction with top-to-bottom thermal gradients. In operation, temperature variations from nighttime cooling cause time-varying aberration modes. Using feedback from a stellar wavefront sensor, these aberrations can be compensated to focus starlight energy into a 1.4 arcsec fiber.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationAdvances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation VI
EditorsRamon Navarro, Ralf Jedamzik
PublisherSPIE
ISBN (Electronic)9781510675230
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024
Externally publishedYes
EventAdvances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation VI 2024 - Yokohama, Japan
Duration: Jun 16 2024Jun 22 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume13100
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Conference

ConferenceAdvances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation VI 2024
Country/TerritoryJapan
CityYokohama
Period6/16/246/22/24

Keywords

  • etendue
  • exoplanet transit spectroscopy
  • fiber-feed
  • high-resolution spectroscopy
  • Peltier device
  • slumping
  • telescope arrays
  • Trizact

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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