Abstract. The High Efficiency and Resolution Multi Element Spectrograph, HERMES, is a facility-class optical spectrograph for the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). It is designed primarily for Galactic Archaeology, the first major attempt to create a detailed understanding of galaxy formation and evolution by studying the history of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The goal of the GALAH survey is to reconstruct the mass assembly history of the Milky Way through a detailed chemical abundance study of one million stars. The spectrograph is based at the AAT and is fed by the existing 2dF robotic fiber positioning system. The spectrograph uses volume phase holographic gratings to achieve a spectral resolving power of 28,000 in standard mode and also provides a high-resolution mode ranging between 40,000 and 50,000 using a slit mask. The GALAH survey requires an SNR greater than 100 for a star brightness of V ¼ 14 in an exposure time of one hour. The total spectral coverage of the four channels is about 100 nm between 370 and 1000 nm for up to 392 simultaneous targets within the 2-degree field of view. HERMES has been commissioned over three runs, during bright time in October, November, and December 2013, in parallel with the beginning of the GALAH pilot survey, which started in November 2013. We present the first-light results from the commissioning run and the beginning of the GALAH survey, including performance results such as throughput and resolution, as well as instrument reliability. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

Olympic medallists live longer than the general population, irrespective of country, medal, or sport. This study was not designed to explain this effect, but possible explanations include genetic factors, physical activity, healthy lifestyle, and the wealth and status that come with international sporting glory.

Olympic medallists live longer than the general population, irrespective of country, medal, or sport. This study was not designed to explain this effect, but possible explanations include genetic factors, physical activity, healthy lifestyle, and the wealth and status that come with international sporting glory.

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Starbugs are miniature piezoelectric 'walking' robots with the ability to simultaneously position many optical fibres across a telescope's focal plane. Their simple design incorporates two piezoceramic tubes to form a pair of concentric 'legs' capable of taking individual steps of a few microns, yet with the capacity to move a payload several millimetres per second. The Australian Astronomical Observatory has developed this technology to enable fast and accurate field reconfigurations without the inherent limitations of more traditional positioning techniques, such as the 'pick and place' robotic arm. We report on our recent successes in demonstrating Starbug technology, driven principally by R&D efforts for the planned MANIFEST (many instrument fibre-system) facility for the Giant Magellan Telescope. Significant performance gains have resulted from improvements to the Starbug system, including i) the use of a vacuum to attach Starbugs to the underside of a transparent field plate, ii) optimisation of the control electronics, iii) a simplified mechanical design with high sensitivity piezo actuators, and iv) the construction of a dedicated laboratory 'test rig'. A method of reliably rotating Starbugs in steps of several arcminutes has also been devised, which integrates with the preexisting x-y movement directions and offers greater flexibility while positioning. We present measured performance data from a prototype system of 10 Starbugs under full (closed-loop) control, at field plate angles of 0-90 degrees.

The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) has recently completed a feasibility study for a fiber-positioner facility proposed for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), called MANIFEST (the Many Instrument Fiber System). The MANIFEST facility takes full advantage of the wide-field focal plane to efficiently feed a number of focal instruments. It is a simple, flexible and modular design, based on the AAO's experience and R&D with starbugs, robotic positioners, and related fiber technologies for astronomical instrumentation. Up to 2000 individually deployable fiber units are envisaged, with a wide variety of aperture types (single-aperture, image-or pupil-slicing, IFU). MANIFEST allows (a) full use of the GMT's 20' field-of-view, (b) a multiplexed IFU capability, (c) greatly increased spectral resolution via image-slicing, (d) the possibility of OH-suppression in the near-infrared. It is intended that MANIFEST will form part of the GMT facility itself, available to any instrument able to make use of it. In this paper, we report on the recent progress involving the science goals, instrument concept, related technologies and performances.

The AAO is building an optical high resolution multi-object spectrograph for the AAT for Galactic Archaeology. The instrument has undergone significant design revision over that presented at the 2008 Marseilles SPIE meeting. The current design is a 4-channel VPH-grating based spectrograph providing a nominal spectral resolving power of 28,000 and a high-resolution mode of 45,000 with the use of a slit mask. The total spectral coverage is about 1000 Angstroms for up to 392 simultaneous targets within the 2 degree field of view. Major challenges in the design include the mechanical stability, grating and dichroic efficiencies, and fibre slit relay implementation. An overview of the current design and discussion of these challenges is presented.

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