Design, testing, and performance of the Hobby Eberly Telescope prime focus instrument package

Abstract

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) is undergoing an upgrade to increase the field of view to 22 arc-minutes with the dark energy survey HETDEX the initial science goal [1]. Here we report on the engineering development of a suite of instruments located at prime focus of the upgraded HET. The Prime Focus Instrument Package (PFIP) contains acquisition, guiding, and wave front sensing instrumentation [2], the fiber feeds for the facility spectrographs (VIRUS, HRS, MRS, LRS2), and ancillary hardware. This paper reviews the design and functions of the PFIP and presents details of the mechanical design, integration and testing.