The H2RG test detector was delivered and installed in the SPIRou spectrograph The H2RG detector that SPIRou will use to test and validate the whole instrument (until we receive the final H4RG from Teledyne Imaging Sensors / TIS in 2017 Q3) was just delivered and installed at the rear of the camera. This engineering-grade HgCdTe […]
The SPIRou dioptric camera was delivered and installed in the spectrograph The last optical element of the SPIRou spectrograph, the dioptric camera, was just delivered at IRAP/OMP and installed on the optical bench. This camera, assembled and tested at Université de Montreal (UdeM) as outlined in a previous highlight, is quite impressive, reaching 1 m in […]
The first pupil slicer of the SPIRou spectrograph was delivered at IRAP / OMP To reach the nominal spectral resolving power without losing light at the spectrograph entrance, SPIRou uses a pupil slicer to split the image coming out of the triple 90-µm octagonal fiber (at beam aperture f/4) into a series of 12 images […]
Our friend Les Saddlemyer passed away With 2017 just starting, we have very sad news to share. Our NRC-H colleague Les Saddlemyer passed away on 2017 Jan 09 following a heart attack, at too young an age of only 57. Les has been a key actor in SPIRou since the very beginning, and was currently […]
Most of the optical components are being aligned on the SPIRou optical bench at IRAP/OMP December marked the first steps of the spectrograph optical alignment, carried out at ambient temperature. In practice, this meant locating all optical components and their mounts on the bench at their nominal position, then fine tuning their position with respect […]
The SPIRou spectrograph optics were integrated in their respective mounts at IRAP/OMP Following the integration and metrology of the off-axis parabola at LAM (Marseille) last summer, remaining spectrograph optics, i.e., the échelle grating, the folding mirror and the 3 prisms of the double-pass cross-disperser were glued and installed in their respective mount. Before shipping to […]
The stringent requirement on the cryostat thermal stability was validated at IRAP/OMP In order to meet the stringent SPIRou requirement in terms of radial velocity precision, the opto-mechanical structure of the cryogenic spectrograph must be thermally stable within 2 mK/day (with a goal of 1 mK/day) once cooled down at an average temperature of about […]
The optical components of the Cassegrain unit are being integrated and aligned The SPIRou Cassegrain unit includes precision optics, some of which specifically aimed at measuring the polarization of the incoming stellar light. The Cass unit is made of an upper and lower module, the first one dedicated to calibration and atmospheric correction facilities, the […]
Following integration, the SPIRou science camera is being tested at UL & UdeM The SPIRou spectrograph includes a dedicated fully-dioptric camera that will focus on the science detector the diffracted and collimated beam, coming from the prisms, grating and parabola. This impressive opto-mechanical assembly consists of 5 successive large lenses (up to 237 mm in […]