Final design and progress of WEAVE: the next generation wide-field spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope

We present the Final Design of the WEAVE next-generation spectroscopy facility for the William Herschel Telescope (WHT), together with a status update on the details of manufacturing, integration and the overall project schedule now that all the major fabrication contracts are in place. We also present a summary of the current planning behind the 5-year initial phase of survey operations. WEAVE will provide optical ground-based follow up of ground-based (LOFAR) and space-based (Gaia) surveys. WEAVE is a multi-object and multi-IFU facility utilizing a new 2-degree prime focus field of view at the WHT, with a buffered pick-and-place positioner system hosting 1000 multi-object (MOS) fibres, 20 integral field units, or a single large IFU for each observation. The fibres are fed to a single (dual-beam) spectrograph, with total of 16k spectral pixels, located within the WHT GHRIL enclosure on the telescope Nasmyth platform, supporting observations at R~5000 over the full 370-1000nm wavelength range in a single exposure, or a high resolution mode with limited coverage in each arm at R~20000. The project is now in the manufacturing and integration phase with first light expected for early of 2018.

Vanessa Hill | Remko Stuik | Don Carlos Abrams | Ian Lewis | Dan Smith | Ellen Schallig | David Terrett | J. Alfonso L. Aguerri | Andrea Bianco | Emilio Molinari | Isabelle Guinouard | Piercarlo Bonifacio | Andrea Baruffolo | Chris Mottram | Martin Lee | Tibor Agócs | Ramon Navarro | Gabby Kroes | Adrian Martin | Ian Tosh | Antonella Vallenari | Esperanza Carrasco | Carlos Martin | Niels Tromp | Gavin Dalton | Scott Trager | Kevin Middleton | Bernardo Salasnich | Kevin Rogers | Stuart Bates | Jan Kragt | Dirk Lesman | Sergio Pico | Marcello Lodi | Attila Jaskó | Richard Bassom | Kevin Dee | Rik ter Horst | David Murphy | Chris Benn | Shoko Jin | Jim Lewis | Matthew Brock | Nic Walton | Frédéric Sayède | José Miguel Delgado | Adrian P. Martin | Johannes Pragt | Jeurg Rey | Andy Ridings | Marc Verheijen | Iain Steele | Frank Gribbin | Diego Cano | Mike Irwin | Christina Zurita | José Guerra | Janet Drew | Bianca Poggianti | Mat Pieri | Clare Worley | José Miguel Herreros | Emilie Lhome | José Peñate | Carlos Allende Prieto | José Alonso | James Gilbert | Szigfrid Farcas | Luis Fernando Rodriguez | Eduardo Gonzalez Solares | Neil O'Mahoney | Lillian Dominquez Palmero | Cecilia Farina | M. Irwin | Daniel J. B. Smith | D. Murphy | A. Baruffolo | J. Pragt | A. Vallenari | B. Salasnich | N. Walton | M. Verheijen | I. Lewis | G. Dalton | S. Trager | D. Abrams | P. Bonifacio | J. Aguerri | R. Navarro | K. Dee | I. Tosh | K. Middleton | D. Terrett | M. Brock | C. Benn | I. Steele | C. Mottram | S. Bates | F. Gribbin | J. Delgado | I. Guinouard | R. Stuik | Andy Ridings | E. Molinari | M. Lodi | A. Bianco | E. González Solares | J. Drew | C. Zurita | J. Herreros | E. Carrasco | K. Rogers | B. Poggianti | C. Fariña | J. Kragt | N. Tromp | C. Worley | V. Hill | G. Kroes | C. Allende Prieto | F. Sayède | J. Guerra | Shoko Jin | R. ter Horst | A. Jaskó | S. Picó | J. Rey | É. Lhomé | J. Gilbert | D. Lesman | Carlos Martín | D. Cano | Ellen Schallig | Mat Pieri | J. Lewis | J. Peñate | L. Rodríguez | T. Agócs | Richard Bassom | Neil O'Mahoney | Szigfrid Farcas | J. Alonso | Martin Lee | Lillian Dominquez Palmero | Daniel J B Smith | F. Sayede