Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer

The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) is a second generation instrument installed at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

It is an integral-field spectrograph operating in the visible wavelength range. It combines a wide field of view with a fine spatial sampling and a large simultaneous spectral range. It is designed to take advantage of the improved spatial resolution provided by adaptive optics. MUSE had first light on the VLT on 31 January 2014.

Traditionally astronomical observations in the optical region have separated into imaging and spectroscopy. The former can cover a wide field of view, but at the cost of a very coarse resolution in the wavelength direction. The latter has tended to either lose spatial resolution - completely in the case of fibre spectrographs, and partially in the case of long-slit spectrographs - or to have only coarse spatial resolving power in the case of recent Integral field spectrographs.

MUSE was devised to improve on this situation by providing both high spatial resolution as well as a good spectral coverage. The principal investigator of the instrument is Roland Bacon at the in charge of a consortium consisting of six major European institutes: CRAL at Lyon Observatory is the PI institute and led the construction of the majority of the instrument. Other involved institutes include the German Institut für Astrophysik Göttingen (IAG) and the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP), France, ETH Zürich, Switzerland as well as the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

The kick-off for the project was January 18, 2005 with the final design review in March 2009. The instrument passed its final acceptance in Europe on September 10, 2013

MUSE was mounted on Nasmyth platform of the fourth VLT Unit telescope on January 19, 2014 and saw first light on January 31, 2014. The day to day of the installation of MUSE can be followed in the MUSE blog.

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Wikipedia