UK to build spectrograph for Europe’s giant telescope

BBC : This week the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council signed a contract agreeing to build one of the eight scientific instruments planned for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which will be located on a mountaintop in Chile. Called Harmoni, the £50 million ($76 million) spectrograph will use integral field spectroscopy to analyze the different wavelengths of light emitted by distant galaxies in order to understand their composition and dynamics. Also in the works is a near-IR camera called Micado, which Germany has already contracted to build, and a mid-IR imager and spectrograph called Metis, which the Netherlands is expected to sign on for next week. Construction began on the E-ELT site last year. First the top of Cerro Armazones, a mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert, had to be leveled and an asphalt road built to allow trucks to begin hauling the observatory components to the site. Harmoni, Micado, and Metis will take about 10 years to construct and are expected to be operational by 2025.