VIRUS: production of a massively replicated 33k fiber integral field spectrograph for the upgraded Hobby-Eberly Telescope

Hill, Gary. J.; Tuttle, Sarah E.; Lee, Hanshin; Vattiat, Brian L.; Cornell, Mark E.; DePoy, D. L.; Drory, Niv; Fabricius, Maximilian H.; Kelz, Andreas; Marshall, J. L.; Murphy, J. D.; Prochaska, Travis; Allen, Richard D.; Bender, Ralf; Blanc, Guillermo; Chonis, Taylor; Dalton, Gavin; Gebhardt, Karl; Good, John; Haynes, Dionne; Jahn, Thomas; MacQueen, Phillip J.; Rafal, M. D.; Roth, M. M.; Savage, R. D.; Snigula, Jan; McLean, IS; Ramsay, SK; Takami, H
2012
GROUND-BASED AND AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY IV
DOI
10.1117/12.925434
The Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS) consists of a baseline build of 150 identical spectrographs (arrayed as 75 units, each with a pair of spectrographs) fed by 33,600 fibers, each 1.5 arcsec diameter, deployed over the 22 arcminute field of the upgraded 10 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). The goal is to deploy 82 units. VIRUS has a fixed bandpass of 350-550 nm and resolving power R similar to 700. VIRUS is the first example of industrial-scale replication applied to optical astronomy and is capable of spectral surveys of large areas of sky. This approach, in which a relatively simple, inexpensive, unit spectrograph is copied in large numbers, offers significant savings of engineering effort, cost, and schedule when compared to traditional instruments.