Bibcode
Hernández, Elvio; Gigante, Jose V.; Rodríguez, Luis F.; Herreros, José M.; García-Lorenzo, B.; Mediavilla, E.; Thatte, Niranjan; Bryson, Ian; Schnetler, Hermine; Clarke, Fraser; Tecza, Matthias
Bibliographical reference
Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 10706, id. 107063N 9 pp. (2018).
Advertised on:
7
2018
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
HARMONI is a visible and near-infrared (0.47 to 2.45 μm) integral
field spectrograph, providing the ELT's core spectroscopic capability at
first light. A pre-optics subsystem provides four selectable spatial
pixel scales, in addition to other beam conditioning functions such as
shutter and pupil masks. For the validation of the mechanisms in charge
of these functions (fast shutter and the plane mask wheel) we have
planned some prototypes to test the design solutions. The focal plane
mask wheel sits in the input focus of the cryostat. It provides 16
user-selectable positions for masks (28x40 mm) used in observation. The
key driver for this mechanism is the high repeatability (+/-2.5 μm)
required, equivalent to 1mas in the input focal plane. The IAC has
previously designed, manufactured, tested and put in operation cryogenic
wheels with high repeatability; however, the challenge of obtaining a
wheel with such repeatability requires testing new concepts of detent
positioning systems. The shutter allows for exposures shorter than the
minimum read time of the near-IR detectors and is needed for any CCD
observations with the visible cameras. A dual shutter design is needed
to achieve the necessary open/close times (<20 ms), but this also
provides some redundancy and a graceful failure mode for this critical
device. To mitigate risks on the proper behaviour of a fast cryogenics
shutter a prototype based on a simple concept has been manufactured. We
present the design and results for the performed cryogenic tests of a
mask wheel and a shutter prototypes that we have developed.