| Large sky-Area Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope |
| A major ground-based project for Chinese astronomers |
 An artist's impression of LAMOST |
LAMOST is an ambitious project which will provide Chinese astronomers with the capability to carry out massive surveys of faint objects. As its name implies, the Large sky-Area Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope is designed specifically to take the spectra of many objects simultaneously over a wide area of sky. In fact, its field of view is five degrees and it will be able to take the spectra of up to 4,000 objects at once.
The rather striking building houses an unusual design of telescope. The optical element that collects and focuses light is a mirror measuring 6.67 by 6.05 metres, housed in the tallest part of the building. It is fixed in position and looks downhill at a movable corrector mirror in the dome. This mirror can rotate in azimuth and altitude to direct light from the sky to the primary mirror. Because it also acts as a Schmidt corrector, its shape must be changed as it tracks across the sky.
The focussed light from the primary mirror is intercepted in the middle of the building and reflected downwards to the focal plan. Here, an array of 4,000 optical fibres is positioned automatically to collect the light from individual objects.
The optical fibres feed up to 20 separate spectrographs. The design of the robots that position the fibres restrict their placement to be fairly uniform across the focal plane, thus it is unlikely that all 4,000 fibres will ever be collecting light from individual objects at the same time. Nevertheless, operational simulations indicate that tens of thousands of spectra will be collected every night, making this the most powerful spectral survey tool ever.
The LAMOST Project is led by Professor Su Hongjun at the Beijing Asronomical Observatory while the technical team is based at the Nanjing Astronomical Instruments Research Centre. The telescope will be built at the Xinglong Observing Station in Northern China, not far from the Great Wall.
For more information on LAMOST and Chinese astronomy, please follow the links below. Be aware that some of the sites can be slow to access.
|
