Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IX
MOONS – multi object spectroscopy for the VLT: spectrograph performance
August 2022 • Martin Black, Raziye Artan, Ciaran Breen, Kenny Campbell, Lee Chapman, Stephen Chittick, Mark Cliffe, George Davidson, O. A. González, Richard Kotlew…
MOONS is a Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph currently under construction as a third generation instrument for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). It combines the large collecting area offered by the VLT (8.2m diameter), with a large multiplex and wavelength coverage (optical to near-IR: 0.8μm - 1.8μm). Integration of 2 of the arms of the spectrograph (RI and YJ) was recently completed at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, and initial engineering tests carried out to assess the performance of the sp…