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Session 44 -- The Status of Large Telescope Projects, Instrumentation and Plans for Large Science Projectects in the Areas of Wide-Field Surveys

Oral presentation, Wednesday, June 14, 1995, 2:00pm - 5:30pm

[44.02] The Progress Report of SUBARU Telescope Project

The project plan and current status of the Japanese 8.2 meter optical and infrared telescope 'SUBARU' are presented. The construction started in 1991. It has prime (F/1.8), Cassegrain (F/12.2 for optical and F/12.4 for infrared) and two Nasmyth (F/12.6) foci. The 8.3 meter ULE meniscus blank has been cast and sagged. Figuring of the surface is now under way before the start of polishing. The telescope mounting and mirror cell are near completion and will be assembled in Japan this fall. The enclosure building has been under construction at the summit of Mauna Kea, where the entire dome structure had already taken visible shape. The engineering first light is scheduled for the spring of 1998. Seven focal plane instruments: IRCS (IR Camera and Spectrograph), CIAO (IR Coronagraph Imager with Adaptive Optics), FOCAS (Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph), HDS (High Dispersion Spectrograph), OHS (OH Line Suppression Spectrograph), COMICS (Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrograph) and WFC (Wide Field CCD Camera) in addition to the AO (Adaptive Optics) systems have been approved for the construction at the present time.

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