The phase A study has clearly shown that OPTIMOS-EVE is a very attractive instrument that will produce breakthrough discoveries in numerous scientific areas. OPTIMOS-EVE operates in seeing limited mode and GLAO mode, producing scientific results when the E-ELT has not yet reached its full performance and in the 30% of the nights when the atmosphere turbulence is too bad to operate AO.
OPTIMOS-EVE is a workhorse instrument because of its versatility. In combination with the large multiplex and the photon collecting power of the E-ELT the instrument is extremely productive. There is an excellent synergy between OPTIMOS-EVE, JWST (possibly also EUCLID), GAIA and ALMA, as they observe the same targets and many studies will highly benefit from the combined observations of OPTIMOS-EVE to JWST and ALMA. OPTIMOS-EVE gets wide support from the astronomical community and has a good chance of getting funded.
The instrument can be build with technologies that are widely used today and no technical “show stoppers” have been identified. We verified that its present design is compliant with all the scientific objectives. The interfaces between OPTIMOS-EVE and the telescope are straightforward and the project schedule agrees well with the E-ELT roadmap. Considering all the above, we conclude that OPTIMOS-EVE is an ideal first generation instrument for the E-ELT!
The OPTical Multi Object Spectrograph 'Extreme Visual Explorer' for the European - Extremely Large Telescope - Consortium partners: GEPI, NOVA, RAL, NBI, INAF, AIP, LSW, IAG, LNA, ON
