An Overview of the MSE Pathfinder Instrument and Science

Over the next few years, the build of the Pathfinder instrument will be underway at the 3.6-m Canada France Hawaii Telescope. Pathfinder will augment the current suite of instrumentation and scientific capabilities of CFHT. It will also advance the development of the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE), a next-generation instrument which is set to replace the existing CFHT facility in the late 2030’s. The baseline configuration of Pathfinder is conceived of as approximately 1,000 fibers that feed 2 low-moderate resolution spectrographs. The instrument will have a two-component deployment: a large format, monolithic integral field unit (IFU) mounted at the Cassegrain focus followed by a multi-object fiber system placed at prime focus. The IFU and MOS capabilities of the MSE-Pathfinder will enable the exploration of a wide range of science cases from cosmology to stellar astrophysics. Potential science areas of focus for the MSE-Pathfinder include time domain and transients, cosmology, and galaxy characterization and evolution. The MSE-Pathfinder will also provide the spectroscopic data necessary to maximize the science return from a variety of space-based and ground-based facilities. An overview of the MSE Pathfinder instrument will be presented and the science drivers for the Pathfinder will be discussed.