4MOST - 4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope
Creators: name: de Jong, Roelof S.
name: Bellido-Tirado, Olga
name: Chiappini, Cristina
name: Depagne, Éric
name: Haynes, Roger
name: Johl, Diane
name: Schnurr, Olivier
name: Schwope, Axel
name: Walcher, Jakob
name: Dionies, Frank
name: Haynes, Dionne
name: Kelz, Andreas
name: Kitaura, Francisco S.
name: Lamer, Georg
name: Minchev, Ivan
name: Müller, Volker
name: Nuza, Sebastián E.
name: Olaya, Jean-Christophe
name: Piffl, Tilmann
name: Popow, Emil
name: Steinmetz, Matthias
name: Ural, Uğur
name: Williams, Mary
name: Winkler, Roland
name: Wisotzki, Lutz
name: Ansorgb, Wolfgang R.
name: Banerji, Manda
name: Solares, Eduardo Gonzalez
name: Irwin, Mike
name: Kennicutt, Robert C.
name: King, David
name: McMahon, Richard
name: Koposov, Sergey
name: Parry, Ian R.
name: Walton, Nicholas A.
name: Finger, Gert
name: Iwert, Olaf
name: Krumpe, Mirko
name: Lizon, Jean-Louis
name: Vincenzo, Mainieri
name: Amans, Jean-Philippe
name: Bonifacio, Piercarlo
name: Cohen, Mathieu
name: Francois, Patrick
name: Jagourel, Pascal
name: Mignot, Shan B.
name: Royer, Frédéric
name: Sartoretti, Paola
name: Bender, Ralf
name: Grupp, Frank
name: Hess, Hans-Joachim
name: Lang-Bardl, Florian
name: Muschielok, Bernard
name: Böhringer, Hans
name: Boller, Thomas
name: Bongiorno, Angela
name: Brusa, Marcella
name: Dwelly, Tom
name: Merloni, Andrea
name: Nandra, Kirpal
name: Salvato, Mara
name: Pragt, Johannes H.
name: Navarro, Ramón
name: Gerlofsma, Gerrit
name: Roelfsema, Ronald
name: Dalton, Gavin B.
name: Middleton, Kevin F.
name: Tosh, Ian A.
name: Boeche, Corrado
name: Caffau, Elisabetta
name: Christlieb, Norbert
name: Grebel, Eva K.
name: Hansen, Camilla
name: Koch, Andreas
name: Ludwig, Hans-G.
name: Quirrenbach, Andreas
name: Sbordone, Luca
name: Seifert, Walter
name: Thimm, Guido
name: Trifonov, Trifon
name: Helmi, Amina
name: Trager, Scott C.
name: Feltzing, Sofia
name: Korn, Andreas
name: Boland, Wilfried
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The 4MOST consortium is currently halfway through a Conceptual Design study for ESO with the aim to develop a wide-field (&gt;3 square degree, goal &gt;5 square degree), high-multiplex (&gt;1500 fibres, goal 3000 fibres) spectroscopic survey facility for an ESO 4m-class telescope (VISTA). 4MOST will run permanently on the telescope to perform a 5 year public survey yielding more than 20 million spectra at resolution R~5000 (λ=390-1000 nm) and more than 2 million spectra at R~20,000 (395-456.5 nm &amp; 587-673 nm). The 4MOST design is especially intended to complement three key all-sky, space-based observatories of prime European interest: Gaia, eROSITA and Euclid. Initial design and performance estimates for the wide-field corrector concepts are presented. We consider two fibre positioner concepts, a well-known Phi-Theta system and a new R-Theta concept with a large patrol area. The spectrographs are fixed configuration two-arm spectrographs, with dedicated spectrographs for the high- and low-resolution. A full facility simulator is being developed to guide trade-off decisions regarding the optimal field-of-view, number of fibres needed, and the relative fraction of high-to-low resolution fibres. Mock catalogues with template spectra from seven Design Reference Surveys are simulated to verify the science requirements of 4MOST. The 4MOST consortium aims to deliver the full 4MOST facility by the end of 2018 and start delivering high-level data products for both consortium and ESO community targets a year later with yearly increments.
description: To appear in the proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation + Telescopes conference, Amsterdam, 2012. 15 pages, 16 figures