SIFS arrives

The SOAR Integral Field Spectrograph (SIFS) was delivered to SOAR on 10 Dec 2009.  After arriving at Cerro Pachon in great shape, SIFS had its  completed its off telescope integration first engineering on 18 Dec 2009. The Brazilian instrument team (Bruno Castilho, Flávio Ribeiro and Márcio Arruda, from LNA), helped by SOAR technical and science staff released the 1.2 ton of equipment (including test and handling material) from the boxes, and assembled the spectrograph. The instrument consists of three sub-systems: fore-optics, fiber cable and bench spectrograph. All parts were tested in the telescope for mechanical assembly and to make final adjustments in the fiber cable path.

After assembling the mechanics and optics the team worked on the electronics and software, which presented some problems, that were mostly solved by the end of the run; having the spectrograph fully functional at the SOAR ground level storage area. After that, the team performed a first order optical alignment and prepared the spectrograph for the second engineering run/integration test to take place end of January.

In this second integration test the team will finish optical alignment, install the spectrograph at the telescope and integrate the instrument control software with the SOAR control system leaving SIFS ready for the sky commissioning to take place in February/March.

We would like to congratulate the actual and former SIFS development team members for the accomplishment.