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Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING): instrument design, assembly and calibration

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Abstract

The Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING) is a near-ultraviolet (NUV) low-resolution spectrograph payload designed to operate in the NUV range, 1400 Å – 2700 Å, from a stable space platform. SING telescope has a primary aperture of 298 mm, feeding the light to the long-slit UV spectrograph. SING has a field of view (FOV) of \(1^{\circ }\), achieving a spatial resolution of 1.33 arcminute and spectral resolution of 3.7 Å(\({R\sim 600}\)) at the central wavelength. SING employs a micro-channel plate (MCP) with a CMOS readout-based photon-counting detector. The instrument is designed to observe diffuse sources such as nebulae, supernova remnants, and the interstellar medium (ISM) to understand their chemistry. SING was selected by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs to be hosted on the Chinese Space Station. The instrument will undergo qualification tests as per the launch requirements. In this paper, we describe the hardware design, optomechanical assembly, and calibration of the instrument.

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Data Availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

Notes

  1. http://www.photek.com/

  2. http://www.cense.iisc.ac.in/

  3. https://www.horiba.com/int/scientific/technologies/diffraction-gratings/

  4. https://www.iiap.res.in/?q=photonics.htm

  5. http://www.zemax.com/

  6. HHV: Hind High Vacuum Company Private Ltd: https://hhv.in/

  7. https://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n6465715/n6465718/c6476863/content.html

  8. UNICITA Consulting Pvt Ltd.

  9. Supplied along with the MCP.

  10. https://www.raspberrypi.org/

  11. Detector was covered, and counts were measured for 3 min. We found the counts to be around 68 counts per second per, which matched with the value of 70 counts per second provided by Photek.

  12. https://www.oceaninsight.com/products/spectrometers/high-sensitivity/Custom-Configured-maya2000-pro--series/

  13. Here we have assumed that the slit is oriented perpendicular to the direction of motion, and the scan was done at a slew rate of 4 arcminute per sec.

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Acknowledgements

We specially thank Mr. Burman Rahuldeb, Mr. Ismail Jabillulah and Mr. G. Nataraj who manufactured the mirrors for SING at the IIA photonics lab. The authors thank Mr. S. Kathiravan for helping us complete the project at the MGKM Lab, CREST Campus, IIA, Bangalore. We express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Ajin Prakash of Arksa Research Labs for his invaluable suggestions and assistance. We also thank Mr. Prasobh P. and Mr. Francis from IIA mechanical workshop, and the technicians Mr. Vishnu and Mr. Suresh from MGKM Lab. MS acknowledges the financial support by the DST, Government of India, under the Women Scientist Scheme (PH) project reference number SR/WOS-A/PM-17/2019. Some of the data presented in this paper were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contract NA S5-26555. Support for MAST for non-Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science via grant NNX09AF08G and by other grants and contracts.

Funding

This research was made possible through financial support from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India

    Bharat Chandra P., Binukumar G. Nair, Shubham Jankiram Ghatul, Shubhangi Jain, S. Sriram, Mahesh Babu S., Rekhesh Mohan, Margarita Safonova & Jayant Murthy

  2. Department of Applied Optics and Photonics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India

    Bharat Chandra P.

  3. Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    Mikhail Sachkov

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  1. Bharat Chandra P.
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  2. Binukumar G. Nair
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Contributions

BCP, BK, MS1, and JM authored the primary manuscript text. BCP and BK were responsible for the system design and testing. MB and SJ2 were responsible for the assembly of the electronics. Testing of the detector was a collaborative effort involving BCP, BK, and SJ1. The project received essential oversight and funding support from JM, RM, and MS2, who served as project supervisors.

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Correspondence to Bharat Chandra P..

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P., B.C., Nair, B.G., Ghatul, S.J. et al. Spectroscopic Investigation of Nebular Gas (SING): instrument design, assembly and calibration. Exp Astron 57, 18 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-024-09937-9

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