AAOmega

Description

AAOmega, the new spectrograph for the 2dF robot fibre positioner, was successfully commissioned in January 2006. The spectrograph is a dual beam system, with a Blue and Red arm that cover the full wavelength range, 370nm to 850nm at low resolution and are tunable over this entire range at higher resolutions.

The Two Degree Field system ("2dF") is the AATs (and arguably the worlds) most complex astronomical instrument. It is designed to allow the acquisition of up to 392 simultaneous spectra of objects anywhere within a two degree field on the sky. It consists of a wide field corrector, an atmospheric dispersion compensator, a robot gantry which positions optical fibres to 0.3'' on the sky. The fibres are fed to a duel-beam bench mounted spectrograph stationed in the thermally stable environment of one of the telescope Coude rooms. A tumbling mechanism with two field plates allows the next field to be configured while the current field is being observed.

In addition to Multi-Objects Spectroscopy (MOS) mode, AAOmega can also be fed by the SPIRAL Integral Field Unit (IFU).

AAOmega Information at AAO

What's New? - resent updates and information
Current Status - Information for those considering an AAOmega proposal

Information for observers who intend to use 2dF

How to prepare for an AAOmega observing run
On-line manuals and information
Proposal preparation tools
- AAOmega S/N Calculator (MOS)
- AAOmega S/N Calculator (IFU)
- AAOmega Grating calculator, and the list of available VPH gratings
CCD details
Instrumentation papers

"Performance of AAOmega: the AAT multi-purpose fiber-fed spectrograph" : Sharp et al. 2006 SPIE 6269E 14, arXiv:astro-ph/0606137
"AAOmega: a scientific and optical overview" : Saunders et al. 2004 SPIE 5492 389
"AAOmega: a multipurpose fiber-fed spectrograph for the AAT" : Smith et al. 2004 SPIE 5492 410

Visit the AAOmega software page for the Latest versions on

Configure, the target allocation software

latest AAOmega setup files, which you'll need to use with Configure
A guide to Simulated Annealing within Configure
A guide to creating complex configurations

2dfdr the data reduction task

Data reduction CookBook Twiki
2dfdr Output file Format Twiki

User Documentation

The 2dF Manual and other documentation

How to prepare for an AAOmega observing run
2dF Frequently Asked Questions
2dF Frequently Made Mistakes
A guide to Simulated Annealing within Configure
A guide to creating complex configurations

AAOmega Technical documents - Documents for Support Astronomers and expert 2dF/AAOmega users

Operations manuals
Channing AAOmega Gratings
Temporarily disabling fibre with Configure: set_fibre_state
SPIRAL control and calibration system

Contact persons at AAO.

2dF Information outside AAO

The original 2dF observing system, upon which AAOmega is based, was responsible for two large survey programs, the data for which is hosted outside of the AAO.

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey is a joint UK-Australian project, and was one of the main motivations behind the design of 2dF. The goal is to carry out a large redshift survey of 250,000 galaxies (selected from the APM Galaxy Catalog) to make a 3D map of the Southern Sky.
A local web mirror can be found at http://www2.aao.gov.au/2dFGRS
2dFGRS observations are now finished (April 2002), with over 220,000 galaxy redshifts obtained.

The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey is integrated with the galaxy survey and aims to take spectra of 30,000 QSOs in parallel. 2QZ observations are also now completed, with over 23,000 redshifts obtained.

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