The 2024 Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE)  Collaboration Workshop will be virtual, based on polling the community, to be a better global citizen, and to accommodate participation from more interested parties from around the globe.

The meeting will have 4 sessions each week, on the days of October 29–31 and November 6–8, 2024 (GMT).  Each virtual session will be ~ 3 hours each (with a break) and spaced in time to maximize participation from our global collaboration.

The meeting will be an opportunity to:

• Provide input, add key MSE science cases, and identify new project leadership.
• Present recent progress of new telescope and instrument design and capabilities.
• Discuss the science opportunities of MSE in the context of other facilities.
• Work toward proposing MSE as a Hawaiian project and a new paradigm of socially, ethically, and environmentally responsible stewardship on Maunakea.

This meeting comes at an important stage in MSE evolution as astronomy considers how to develop socially, ethically, and environmentally responsible projects while continuing to enable groundbreaking science.

The goal of the MSE project is to develop a 10+m, wide-field, optical, and near-infrared facility under a new paradigm that includes community consultation and co-design.  The new facility would be completely dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy of samples between thousands and millions of astrophysical objects. It would observe using a wide range of spectral resolutions and wavebands. Nominal specifications include R~2500 to R~40,000, with massive multiplexing of 18,000+ spectra per exposure, operating in the visible through J and H bands. With these unmatched capabilities, MSE would collect spectra equivalent to an entire SDSS Legacy Survey every eight weeks. With the possibility of first light at the end of the 2030s, MSE would provide essential optical and near-infrared spectroscopic follow-up for millions of faint sources identified in Gaia, Euclid, Rubin, Roman, SKA, the ngVLA, and many other next-generation surveys.

Due to the enhanced Quad-Mirror (QM) telescope design and the project timeline, the workshop aims to bring fresh perspectives and energy to update the MSE science cases. Furthermore, the results from the current generation of surveys conducted on existing four-to-eight-meter facilities will inform the science case and design of this next-generation facility. We welcome all interested scientists, especially early career researchers, to get involved in leadership roles in the science working groups as we seek to advance a new, detailed science case to take advantage of the new QM telescope design and explore new potential technologies.    This meeting is open to the entire international astronomical and instrumentation community. 

Registration, which will help us finalize the talks and session times, should be completed before September 27th, 2024.  Please register at the link here.  For a detailed schedule CLICK HERE.

Science Organizing Committee (SOC)

Peter Frinchaboy (Chair) – Texas Christian University/MSE
Joseph Choi – l’Université de Montréal
Daniel Devost – CFHT/MSE
Viraja Khatu – CFHT/MSE
Jonathan Loveday – University of Sussex/4MOST
Vincenzo Mainieri – ESO/WST
Jen Marshall – Texas A&M/MSE
Joan Najita – NSF NoirLabs
Gajendra Pandey – Indian Institute of Astrophysics/MSE
Andy Sheinis – CFHT/MSE