MOONS: The Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph

Abstract

MOONS (Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph) is a large field (500 square arcminutes), multi-object (500 object + 500 sky fibres) instrument with spectral resolution of 5000 and 20000 proposed for the VLT Nasmyth focus. The science case for MOONS, covering Galactic structure and galaxy evolution up to the epoch of re-ionisation, is briefly outlined.