Authors

N. Thatte (1), F. Clarke (1), M. Tecza (1), R. L. Davies (1), S. Arribas (2), R. Bacon (3), D. Lunney (4), E. Mediavilla (5), T. Fusco (6)

Affiliations

(1) Univ. of Oxford, United Kingdom (2) DAMIR, CSIC, Spain (3) CRAL, Lyon, France (4) UKATC, Edinburgh, United Kingdom (5) IAC, Tenerife, Spain (6) ONERA, Paris, France

Abstract

The HARMONI integral field spectrograph concept is one of the two instruments chosen to form the first-light instrument complement at the E-ELT. HARMONI is a work-horse instrument, operating over a large wavelength range (V to K), with many different spatial scales (diffraction limited to seeing limited) and moderate to high spectral resolving power (5000 to 20000). It is designed to work in conjunction with several different AO systems at the E-ELT: GLAO provided by the telescope, LTAO provided by the dedicated facility ATLAS, and SCAO incorporated within the instrument itself. We present the conceptual design of HARMONI, and discuss the challenges involved in working with many different flavours of AO, over a wide range of spatial resolutions. We briefly present the science cases that drive the instrument design, and highlight the innovative aspects of the design, operation and calibration of HARMONI.