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The SALT Development Committee Recommendations Regarding New Instruments

The SALT Development Committee conducted an email survey to gather feedback on the development of new instruments for the SALT telescope. The recommendations include prioritizing the construction of the High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS) as the next instrument and developing the NIR arm of PFIS/RSS in parallel. Other suggested instruments include a new fiber-fed instrument, wider-field imaging, integral field spectroscopy, adaptive optics, and spectroscopy with high time resolution.

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The SALT Development Committee Recommendations Regarding New Instruments

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  1. (Matt Bershady) Rob Fesen Janusz Kaluzny Wolfram Kollatschney Darragh O’Donoghue May 2006 The SALT Development CommitteeRecommendations Regarding New Instruments

  2. Feedback from an E-mail survey sent out in mid-March 2006 revealed a general consensus about the development of new SALT instruments. Three questions were asked: 1) Should Second Generation Instrument discussions be postponed until we have a mature understanding about the performances of the current two instruments? Or should we be developing 2nd Gen instrument priority lists now if we really want to have new instruments coming on-line a few years from now? -- For example, if SALTICAM has poor image quality or if PFIS turned out to be much lower in throughput efficiency, might that affect how we proceed on 2nd Gen Instrumentation? Most responses were that the SALT Consortium should be discussing and prioritizing new instruments now. The long lead time to establish funding and for agreeing on new instrument specs means that we cannot wait several years. However, there was also a clear message that we should not divert ourselves too much from our #1 task, i.e., getting SALT and the current two instruments up and running and understanding their performances, throughputs, and the overall efficiency of SALT operations as presently configured.

  3. 2) Once SALTICAM and PFIS/RSS are fully up and running, what should be our next instrument priority? -- For example, if no interested party comes forth to build HRS, does that mean we should hold off on building an IR arm to PFIS/RSS until HRS gets fully funded? Virtually all responded that the SALT Consortium should view HRS as our top priority. It was a planned 1st Gen instrument from the outset and we currently have about half the estimated construction funds. Moreover, several institutions joined SALT on the promise that a high resolution spectrograph would be built. However, there was also a strong feeling that the NIR arm should not wait until HRS is completed, with both moving forward in parallel. We already have an existing platform to work on and an interested potential instrument builder with a detailed concept (A. Sheinis).

  4. 3)Assuming construction begins soon on HRS and it does get built, what is your most desired new instrumentation for SALT? Is it a NIR spectrograph of PFIS/RSS? Or something else? If something else, what exactly? On this subject there was no clear consensus. Instruments mentioned included: NIR arm of PFIS/RSS (Wisconsin, SA, UKSC, Dartmouth, CMU, Goettinggen) A new Fiber (fibre) fed instrument(s) (SA, UC) Wider-field imaging (SA, Dartmouth) An Integral Field spectroscopy (Wisconsin) AO (Wisconsin) Spectroscopy with high time resolution (UKSC)

  5. So, we recommend the following: While preliminary new instrument discussions should proceed, our instrument focus must be the resolution of the present IQ and other start-up telescope problems. SALT should not dilute either its attention or funds until these issues are fixed…b/c they could be costly. We need to gain some operational experience to guide us on how simple or complex new instruments should be. Our top instrument priority should be the construction of HRS. Identifying additional funding sources soon is seen as being critical. 3) The NIR PFIS/RSS arm should be developed in parallel with HRS if possible if it does not impact HRS fund raising efforts. We suggest that the SSWG be charged with defining ASAP the wavelength coverage and other specs of the NIR spectrograph, considering associated science vs costs trade-offs. 4) Viewing software development just as important as any new telescope `instrument’, SALT may be trying to operate a queue-scheduled 10m telescope with too few full-time, data reduction/pipeline software staff. The SALT Board might consider ways of increasing software development funds and/or staffing. 5) If the current IQ/telescope problems are solved by the end of this year, we also recommend that the SSWG be charged with developing a list of true 2nd Gen Instruments that exploit SALT’s strengths (e.g., queue scheduling) by early 2007.

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