Prime Focus Spectrograph: Next Generation Subaru Telescope Facility Instrument Coming to First Light

PFS (Prime Focus Spectrograph), a next generation facility instrument on the 8.2m Subaru telescope, is a very wide-field, massively multiplexed, and optical & near-infrared spectrograph. Exploiting the Subaru prime focus, 2394 reconfigurable fibers will be distributed in the 1.3 degree-diameter field of view. The spectrograph system has been designed with 3 arms of blue, red, and near-infrared cameras to simultaneously deliver spectra from 380nm to 1260nm in one exposure. The instrumentation has been carried out by the international collaboration across 7 countries (Japan, USA, France, Brazil, Taiwan, Germany, China) managed by PFS Project Office hosted by Kavli IPMU (Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe), the University of Tokyo in Japan. The team are actively integrating and testing the hardware and software of the subsystems. In 2018, the first subsystem, Metrology Camera System, was delivered to the observatory at the summit of Maunakea and successfully tested on the telescope through the two nighttime engineering runs, one in October 2018 and the other in August 2019. In November 2019, the first spectrograph module with visible cameras was delivered to the observatory, and successfully re-integrated in December 2019. The integration and test of the other spectrograph modules are ongoing for their completions in 2021. The development of the other subsystems is also well progressing: The focal plane of the Prime Focus Instrument was fully populated with the fiber positioner modules in Sep 2020 and now the team is finalizing the assembly for the delivery in Spring 2021. The first sub-cable of the on-telescope fiber cable system was fully integrated and tested for the installation on the telescope in January 2021. We aim to start on-sky engineering observation in autumn 2021, and science operation in 2023. In parallel, the collaboration is trying to develop a timely plan of large-sky survey observation to be proposed and conducted in the framework of Subaru Strategic Program (SSP). In this presentation, I will give an overview of the recent progress, current status and future perspectives of the instrumentation.