The UCM instrumentation group coordinates the efforts and activities of UCM researchers in the field of development and scientific exploitation of astronomical instrumentation for large facilities. The group is mainly formed by UCM staff and postdoctoral researchers, with the collaboration of Ph.D. and graduate students.

MEGARA: the next optical IFU spectrograph for GTC

MEGARA, is a large field of view high spectral resolution IFU and MOS in the optical for GTC. It will provide medium to high spectral resolution. MEGARA also considers a MOS fiber spectrograph. This project is leaded by UCM. PI is A. Gil de Paz (GUAIX, UCM). MEGARA is planned to arrive to GTC at the end of 2015.

LICA: Laboratorio de Instrumentación Científica Avanzada

Laboratory activities of our group make use of the UCM CAIs (Centros de Apoyo a la Investigación). We also are implementing a new facility defined as the LICA (Laboratorio de Instrumentación Científica Avanzada). LICA will start including an optical bench in a 25 m² room in the new Astrophysics Department headquarters located in the West building of the Facultad CC. Físicas of the UCM. LICA is considered a top priority facility by the UCM-UPM Campus de Excelencia Internacional Project.

Please visit our LICA (Laboratorio de Instrumentación Científica Avanzada) section for current developments.

Data Reduction Pipelines Development

The main expertise of the group is currently related with Data Reduction Pipelines for optical and near-infrared instruments, but new projects are on the way.

 Our group is currently involved in the corresponding international consortia to develop several astronomical instruments for the 10.4m GTC telescope:

• MEGARA: Multi-Espectrógrafo en GTC de Alta Resolución para Astronomía
• EMIR: Espectrógrafo Multiobjeto en el infrarrojo
• FRIDA: inFrared Imager and Dissector for Adaptative optics
• MIRADAS: Mid-resolution InfRAreD Astronomical Spectrograh

Other future developments

• FISIR, a nIR tunable filter for GTC that will be installed within the CIRCE criostat. This project is leaded by UCM. PI is J. Gallego (GUAIX, UCM). FISIR is unique in the world because it will allow to observe in the K band. FISIR also provides a wide field of view optimized for surveys.
• EAGLE, a multi-Integral Field Unit spectrograph in the near-IR for the future ESO E-ELT. EAGLE current status is Phase A study and technology demonstration activities supported by ESO, the FP7 'ELT-Prep' programme and national French and UK funding. PI is J.G. Cuby (OAMP, Marseille). UCM has been offered to become a member of the consortium institutions.
• OPTIMOS/DIORAMAS, a multi-object optical imager and spectrograph for the future ESO E-ELT. Current status is Phase A study and technology demonstration activities supported by ESO. PI is O. LeFevre (OAMP, Marseille) and J. Gallego belongs to the Science team.
• MOS-IR, a new instrumental concept based in a major upgrade to the current VIMOS spectrograph. New nIR optics and detectors would provide a wide-field multi-object spectrograh operating in the J band. MOS-IR is leaded by Prof. LeFevre (Obs Marseille). The UCM group belongs to the consortium. Current status is Phase A study and technology demonstration activities supported by ESO.