The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph
We demonstrate a novel technology that combines the power of the multi-object spectrograph with the spatial multiplex advantage of an integral field spectrograph (IFS). The Sydney-AAO (Australian Astronomical Observatory) Multi-object IFS (SAMI) is a prototype wide-field system at the Anglo-Australi...
Published in: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Oxford University Press
2012
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/421/1/872 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.20365.x |
Summary: | We demonstrate a novel technology that combines the power of the multi-object spectrograph with the spatial multiplex advantage of an integral field spectrograph (IFS). The Sydney-AAO (Australian Astronomical Observatory) Multi-object IFS (SAMI) is a prototype wide-field system at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) that allows 13 imaging fibre bundles (‘hexabundles’) to be deployed over a 1-degree diameter field of view. Each hexabundle comprises 61 lightly fused multi-mode fibres with reduced cladding and yields a 75 per cent filling factor. Each fibre core diameter subtends 1.6 arcsec on the sky and each hexabundle has a field of view of 15 arcsec diameter. The fibres are fed to the flexible AAOmega double-beam spectrograph, which can be used at a range of spectral resolutions ( R =λ/δλ≈ 1700–13 000) over the optical spectrum (3700–9500 Å). We present the first spectroscopic results obtained with SAMI for a sample of galaxies at z ≈ 0.05. We discuss the prospects of implementing hexabundles at a much higher multiplex over wider fields of view in order to carry out spatially resolved spectroscopic surveys of 104–105 galaxies. |
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