Canada France Hawaii Telescope
Projects
CFHT and its communities prepare the future of the Observatory
In addition to serving the community of today's users, CFHT is constantly involved in developing new projects and getting prepared to welcome the instrumentation for tomorrow's astronomy.
Ongoing Development
VISION
VISION is an optomechanical interface that will allow installing
SPIRou and ESPaDOnS at the Cassegrain focus of the telescope at the same
time. Thanks to a beam splitter that will separate the near IR and
optical beams without affecting polarization, and relay optics, VISION
can be used to observe with SPIRou only (no intervening optics), or with
ESPaDOnS only (using relay optics), or with both SPIRou and ESPaDOnS
simultaneously (using the beam splitter).
This project is led by OMP/IRAP in collaboration with CFHT. Funding is
provided by CFHT and CNRS in France. The current project timeline has
all 3 VISION modes integrated at CFHT (hardware assembled and tested,
software integrated, including QSO and Kealahou) at the end of 2024 or
early 2025
Proposed new narrow-band SITELLE filter
This proposal for a new narrow-band filter covering Halpha will open new scientific opportunities with SITELLE. This filter will increase by a factor of about two both its spectral resolution and sensitivity, and will allow the exploration of prime interest science cases in various domains that are currently not within the reach of SITELLE.
Future Developments
Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer
The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) is CFHT’s plan to reimagine our existing facility into a 10-meter class telescope fully dedicated to spectroscopy. For full information regarding MSE, visit the MSE website.
A brief overview in pdf format can be downloaded here
Pathfinder
Pathfinder-IFU is a single large format 33×28.5”, fiber-fed integral field unit (IFU) that feeds highly efficient optical spectrographs that provide complete wavelength coverage from 360 nm to 980 nm at a minimum resolving power of ~3000. This system will excel at the characterization of galaxies and other faint, diffuse, or uncertain coordinate objects. Pathfinder-IFU is also the first component of the planned MSE-Pathfinder instrument that will bring a 1000 fiber multi-object (Pathfinder-MOS) optical to infrared spectrograph system to CFHT.
The development of this instrument will depend on community support and funding. A brief overview in pdf format can be downloaded here
Previous developments
