Want to know more about marvellous MOONS? 🤔

This magnificent next-gen #astronomy instrument can observe 100 celestial objects at a time and is heading to ESO's VLT in 2024. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇱📡

MOONS news and project overview 👉 ukatc.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/MOONS-pr…

#MOONSToChile

Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences ULisboa have won the Golden Vector Award from igus® Inc. for ‘the most spectacular energy chain application’ for their work on MOONS. ⛓️🏆

Find out more 👉ukatc.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/MOONS-en…

#MOONSToChile

MOONS vibration tests successfully completed!✅

Vibration levels on the 8.5-tonne MOONS spectrograph had to be carefully checked to ensure it won’t interfere with sensitive observations on ESO's Very Large Telescope. 🇨🇱

Find out more 👉 ukatc.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/MOONS-up…

#MOONSToChile

To misquote Obi-Wan Kenobi: 'That's no MOON(S). It's a next-gen astronomy instrument.' 😉

It will simultaneously provide optical-near-infrared spectra for 1000 objects, to survey millions of stars & galaxies.

Find out more 👉 ukatc.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/MOONS-pr…

#StarWarsDay #MOONSToChile

Next-gen #astronomy instrument MOONS is heading to ESO's VLT in 2024. 📡

It's reached a crucial stage on its road to 🇨🇱 as the fully populated instrument has been cooled to -230C & controlled with the final software. ❄️✨

Find out more 👉ukatc.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/MOONS-re…

#MOONSToChile

MOONS Milestone 🎉

100s of fibre positioning units allow MOONS to simultaneously observe 1000 celestial objects! Co-ordinating these FPUs is a complex ballet, now the system has been tested end-to-end in the lab at UK ATC.

Discover more👉 ukatc.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/MOONS-up…

#MOONSToChile

Exciting progress on MOONS (a next gen astronomy instrument for the Very Large Telescope in Chile) with vibration tests successfully completed!✅

Find out more 👉 ukatc.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/MOONS-up…

#MOONSToChile #InternationalAstronomyDay 🧵 2/5