Proceedings Article | 9 August 2016
George Jacoby, R. Bernstein, A. Bouchez, M Colless, Jeff Crane, D. DePoy, B. Espeland, Tyson Hare, D. Jaffe, J. Lawrence, J. Marshall, P. McGregor, Stephen Shectman, R. Sharp, A. Szentgyorgyi, Alan Uomoto, B. Walls
KEYWORDS: Spectrographs, Telescopes, Adaptive optics, Astronomical imaging, Optical design, Spectrographs, Astronomical imaging, Mirrors, Stars, Galactic astronomy, Neodymium, Astronomy
Instrument development for the 24m Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is described: current activities, progress, status, and schedule. One instrument team has completed its preliminary design and is currently beginning its final design (GCLEF, an optical 350-950 nm, high-resolution and precision radial velocity echelle spectrograph). A second instrument team is in its conceptual design phase (GMACS, an optical 350-950 nm, medium resolution, 6-10 arcmin field, multi-object spectrograph). A third instrument team is midway through its preliminary design phase (GMTIFS, a near-IR YJHK diffraction-limited imager/integral-field-spectrograph), focused on risk reduction prototyping and design optimization. A fourth instrument team is currently fabricating the 5 silicon immersion gratings needed to begin its preliminary design phase (GMTNIRS, a simultaneous JHKLM high-resolution, AO-fed, echelle spectrograph). And, another instrument team is focusing on technical development and prototyping (MANIFEST, a facility robotic, multifiber feed, with a 20 arcmin field of view). In addition, a medium-field (6 arcmin, 0.06 arcsec/pix) optical imager will support telescope and AO commissioning activities, and will excel at narrow-band imaging. In the spirit of advancing synergies with other groups, the challenges of running an ELT instrument program and opportunities for cross-ELT collaborations are discussed.
