Speaker
Dr
Tom Diehl
(Fermilab)
Description
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a next generation optical survey aimed at understanding the expansion rate of the universe using four complementary methods: weak gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster counts, baryon acoustic oscillations, and Type Ia supernovae. To perform the survey, the DES Collaboration is building the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square degree, 520 Megapixel CCD camera that will be mounted at the prime focus of the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). The construction of DECam is nearly finished. Integration and testing has commenced at Fermilab with the camera mounted on a “Telescope Simulator”. Some components have already been received at CTIO. In addition, members of the DES Collaboration have been evaluating the physics prospects and design options of the Dark Energy Survey Upgrade, for which the instrument is a multi-fiber spectrometer, called DESpec. This poster will concentrate on the present status of DECam and the expected start of survey operations and describe initial concepts for DESpec.
Primary author
Dr
Tom Diehl
(Fermilab)