MOONS will be the next near infrared fiber fed multi-object spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope, that will offer a one thousand multiplexing capability and a simultaneous coverage of the wavelength range from 0.8 to 1.8 mu m.With the aim of quantitatively i) assessing the instrument performances with respect to sensitivity and OH subtraction, ii) blind-testing the 1D spectra extraction and calibration, provided by the data reduction pipeline, and iii) testing the technical solutions adopted for reaching the outstanding instrument requirements, we have developed "Virtual MOONS", an end-to-end software simulator, which quantitatively computes high fidelity focal plane raw images, emulating the output of the detector electronics.Starting from an ideal photon image derived from the geometrical optics propagation and Point Spread Function (PSF) variations computed by the ZEMAX optical design, the end-to-end optical budget is introduced along with the stray light contributions, resulting in the expected photon counts impinging the detector pixels. Then the photon image plus photon noise is converted to digital counts by means of a detailed detector simulation, including pixel-to-pixel response variation, dark, bias, read-out noise, cosmetics, charge diffusion, flatness and read-out schemes. Critical points like fiber differential response, PSF haloes and sky emission variations have been also taken into account.The current status of this work is presented with an example simulated image and numerical results.

This paper presents the latest optical design for the MOONS triple-arm spectrographs. MOONS will be a Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph and will be installed on one of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescopes (VLT). Included in this paper is a trade-off analysis of different types of collimators, cameras, dichroics and filters.

MOONS is a new conceptual design for a Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), selected by ESO for a Phase A study. The baseline design consists of 1000 fibers deployable over a field of view of 500 square arcmin, the largest patrol field offered by the Nasmyth focus at the VLT. The total wavelength coverage is 0.8um-1.8um and two resolution modes: medium resolution and high resolution. In the medium resolution mode (R=4,000-6,000) the entire wavelength range 0.8um-1.8um is observed simultaneously, while the high resolution mode covers simultaneously three selected spectral regions: one around the CaII triplet (at R=8,000) to measure radial velocities, and two regions at R=20,000 one in the J-band and one in the H-band, for detailed measurements of chemical abundances. The grasp of the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) combined with the large multiplex and wavelength coverage of MOONS - extending into the near-IR - will provide the observational power necessary to study galaxy formation and evolution over the entire history of the Universe, from our Milky Way, through the redshift desert and up to the epoch of re-ionization at z>8-9. At the same time, the high spectral resolution mode will allow astronomers to study chemical abundances of stars in our Galaxy, in particular in the highly obscured regions of the Bulge, and provide the necessary follow-up of the Gaia mission. Such characteristics and versatility make MOONS the long-awaited workhorse near-IR MOS for the VLT, which will perfectly complement optical spectroscopy performed by FLAMES and VIMOS.

We describe the integration and test phase of the construction of the VISTA Infrared Camera, a 64 Megapixel, 1.65 degree field of view 0.9-2.4 micron camera which will soon be operating at the cassegrain focus of the 4m VISTA telescope. The camera incorporates sixteen IR detectors and six CCD detectors which are used to provide autoguiding and wavefront sensing information to the VISTA telescope control system.

The UKIRT Imager Spectrometer (UIST) contains a deployable integral field unit which is one of the most popular modes of this common-user instrument. In this paper, we review all aspects of the UIST IFU from the design and production of the aluminium mirrors to the integration with the telescope system during commissioning. Reduction of the integral field data is fully supported by the UKIRT data reduction pipeline, ORAC-DR.