General information

Two projects are highlighted, TARSIS and MARCOT.

TARSIS is the next generation instrument for the Calar Alto 3.5 m telescope. UCM and IAA-CSIC co-lead TARSIS, the future instrument for the Calar Alto 3.5 m telescope. TARSIS stands for Tetra-ARmed Super-Ifu Spectrograph, due to its optical design based on four arms (three optimized in blue, one in red). It is an instrument co-directed by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the IAA-CSIC, with the participation of three Andalusian universities (Almeria and Seville), the INAOE of Mexico, the industrial partner Fractal SLNE and the Astrobiology Center (CAB/INTA-CSIC) in Madrid. The combination of a wide field of view (2.8x2.8 arcminutes) and a high sensitivity from ultraviolet (in the so-called UV-A range) to red wavelengths makes TARSIS a unique instrument. The design of TARSIS and the exquisite transparency of the Calar Alto sky make possible observations in the full UV-A range, a domain almost unexplored from the ground.

The MARCOT project is the acronym for Multi-Array of Combined Telescopes, a modular astronomical infrastructure facility for high-resolution spectroscopy and large field-of-view and high dynamic range imaging with subarcsecond spatial resolution. The main objective of the MARCOT Project is to carry out the conceptual design and establish a plan for the construction of a new European telescope concept with large effective aperture and low cost. The idea consists in the combination of multiple identical optical elements (identical mirrors or optical assemblies within manufacturing tolerances) resulting in a new infrastructure with a large effective aperture. Photons are collected by individual optical fibers connected to each optical assembly, which are finally combined by a novel multimode photonic lantern into a single fiber, which feeds a high-resolution spectrograph (Figure 1a). In addition, each optical array is equipped with a low-noise readout detector (used for guiding and focusing), and the detector images can be subsequently combined (Figure 15b). In this way, a single frame is generated with a signal-to-noise ratio identical to that of a large-aperture telescope, but with better resolution, dynamic range, and larger field of view.