The DESI Instrument Control System: Status and Early Testing

TL;DR

The paper describes the design, current status, and testing results of the DESI Instrument Control System, which manages complex operations of the DESI spectroscopic instrument for the Mayall telescope.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the ICS design, implementation, and early testing results for the DESI instrument, ensuring readiness for deployment.

Findings

ICS design is complete and integrated.

Multi-stage testing confirms system readiness.

Operational procedures are validated for deployment.

Abstract

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a new instrument currently under construction for the Mayall 4-m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. It will consist of a wide-field optical corrector with a 3.2 degree diameter field of view, a focal plane with 5,000 robotically controlled fiber positioners and 10 fiber-fed broad-band spectrographs. The DESI Instrument Control System (ICS) coordinates fiber positioner operations, interfaces to the Mayall telescope control system, monitors operating conditions, reads out the 30 spectrograph CCDs and provides observer support and data quality monitoring. In this article, we summarize the ICS design, review the current status of the project and present results from a multi-stage test plan that was developed to ensure the system is fully operational by the time the instrument arrives at the observatory in 2019.