PFS
Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph
Short Description:
Multi-object spectrograph at the prime focus of the Subaru 8m telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA. Able to observe 2400 objects spread over a field of view of 1.3 degrees diameter.
Project Type:
Instrument for ground-based telescope
MPE Contribution:
Fiber assignment software, financial contributions
Status:
In operation since 2025
Links:
Example of a PFS observation centred on the Andromeda Galaxy.
Left: The positions of the PFS fibers are superimposed an image of the Andromeda Galaxy (taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam, Credit: NAOJ). Individual celestial objects are marked by circles for stars and galaxies (scientific analyses), squares for bright stars (calibration), and triangles (emission from the Earth’s atmosphere). For comparison, the cyan rectangle shows the field of view of the multi-object spectrograph DEIMOS (Keck telescope). Right: magnified image of the observed celestial object, along with the spectra obtained by PFS.
Left: The positions of the PFS fibers are superimposed an image of the Andromeda Galaxy (taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam, Credit: NAOJ). Individual celestial objects are marked by circles for stars and galaxies (scientific analyses), squares for bright stars (calibration), and triangles (emission from the Earth’s atmosphere). For comparison, the cyan rectangle shows the field of view of the multi-object spectrograph DEIMOS (Keck telescope). Right: magnified image of the observed celestial object, along with the spectra obtained by PFS.
Credit: PFS Project/Kavli IPMU/NAOJ