SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter) will be a spectrograph for the ESO NTT telescope capable to cover the optical and NIR bands, based on the heritage of the X-Shooter at the ESO-VLT. SOXS will be built and run by an international consortium, carrying out rapid and longer term Target of Opportunity requests on a variety of astronomical objects. SOXS will observe all kind of transient and variable sources from different surveys. These will be a mixture of fast alerts (e.g. gamma-ray bursts, gravitational waves, neutrino events), mid-term alerts (e.g. supernovae, X-ray transients), fixed time events (e.g. close-by passage of minor bodies). While the focus is on transients and variables, still there is a wide range of other astrophysical targets and science topics that will benefit from SOXS. The design foresees a spectrograph with a Resolution-Slit product ≈ 4500, capable of simultaneously observing over the entire band the complete spectral range from the U-to the H-band. The limiting magnitude of R~20 (1 hr at S/N~10) is suited to study transients identified from on-going imaging surveys. Light imaging capabilities in the optical band (grizy) are also envisaged to allow for multi-band photometry of the faintest transients. This paper outlines the status of the project, now in Final Design Phase.
The Son Of X-Shooter (SOXS) 1 is a medium resolution spectrograph (R ∼ 4500) proposed for the ESO 3.6 m NTT. We present the optical design of the UV-VIS arm of SOXS which employs high efficiency ion-etched gratings used in first order (m = 1) as the main dispersers. The spectral band is split into four channels which are directed to individual gratings, and imaged simultaneously by a single three-element catadioptric camera. The expected throughput of our design is > 60% including contingency. The SOXS collaboration expects first light in early 2021. This paper is one of several papers presented in these proceedings 2-10 describing the full SOXS instrument.Corresponding author A.R., adam.rubin@weizmann.ac.il * For design purposes we assume a 1 slit. A 1 is also assumed for the quoted resolution.
The Large Array Survey Telescope (LAST) is a wide-field visible-light telescope array designed to explore the variable and transient sky with a high cadence. LAST will be composed of 48, 28 cm f/2.2 telescopes (32 already installed) equipped with full-frame backside-illuminated cooled CMOS detectors. Each telescope provides a field of view (FoV) of 7.4 deg2 with 1.″25 pix−1, while the system FoV is 355 deg2 in 2.9 Gpix. The total collecting area of LAST, with 48 telescopes, is equivalent to a 1.9 m telescope. The cost-effectiveness of the system (i.e., probed volume of space per unit time per unit cost) is about an order of magnitude higher than most existing and under-construction sky surveys. The telescopes are mounted on 12 separate mounts, each carrying four telescopes. This provides significant flexibility in operating the system. The first LAST system is under construction in the Israeli Negev Desert, with 32 telescopes already deployed. We present the system overview and performances based on the system commissioning data. The B p 5σ limiting magnitude of a single 28 cm telescope is about 19.6 (21.0), in 20 s (20 × 20 s). Astrometric two-axes precision (rms) at the bright-end is about 60 (30) mas in 20 s (20 × 20 s), while absolute photometric calibration, relative to GAIA, provides ∼10 millimag accuracy. Relative photometric precision, in a single 20 s (320 s) image, at the bright-end measured over a timescale of about 60 minutes is about 3 (1) millimag. We discuss the system science goals, data pipelines, and the observatory control system in companion publications.
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