Within the European astronomical community, a widespread consensus has
emerged that one or more powerful new wide-field multi-object
spectrographs are needed to follow up current and planned space and
other surveys (including GAIA).
ING is establishing a European consortium to develop such a spectrograph, WEAVE, for the prime focus of the
William Herschel Telescope. WEAVE will be able to take spectra of up
to 1000 objects simultaneously, within a 2-deg field of view. First
light is envisioned in 2016.
Design work for the new prime-focus corrector, and for the
spectrograph, is now in-hand, and the consortium has submitted
to STFC a 'statement of interest' for their consideration.
Further details about the project can be found on the WEAVE web pages:
http://www.ing.iac.es/weave/