Mimir – A Near-Infrared Wide-Field Imager, Spectrometer and Polarimeter

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/2zDgVEB

Mimir is the name (not acronym) for a facility-class infrared instrument built at our IAR lab and at Lowell Observatory. Mimir saw first light on the 1.8 meter Perkins telescope outside Flagstaff, Arizona on August 19, 2004. It is now one of two facility-class instruments in regular use on Boston University's Perkins Telescope Observatory (PTO) outside Flagstaff, Arizona. Mimir is a multi-function instrument that covers a broad wavelength range and allows users to perform complex observations with a single instrument. The three main functions Mimir performs are imaging (much as a camera takes pictures), spectroscopy (decomposing infrared star light into its constituent colors), and polarimetry. (click here for the article describing Mimir in the December 2007 issue of PASP). Mimir’s wavelength coverage is from 1 to 5 micro-meters, or from about twice the wavelength of green light to about ten times that wavelength. This near-infrared light passes through the earth’s atmosphere only in a few bands of wavelengths (click here to see a plot). These bands are identified by letters, running from the shortest wavelength band, called J, through H, K, L, and M. Mimir is open for regular scheduling and use by certified PTO users. Mimir's schedule usage on the PTO for the current quarter may be found on the PTO web site . Eye Candy - Example Images and Spectra NEWS - (click links to see details) Planned Downtime - Q2, Q3 2020 - during dome reskinning [Rescinded, due to COVID-19] Observing: Hardware: Slit has lost home limit sensing. Can be used, but carefully. Contact DPC for work-arounds Upgrades: IZYJ (0.82-1.36um) spec filter, though not much light shortward of 1.0um (see A0V Star raw spectrum) 2nd order (0.8-1.274um) has much higher grism efficiency than 1st order (~6x more), and higher than in JHK-spec mode for the short half of J-band. Useable down to about 0.95um. Looks wonderful at He 1.083um. IZYJ-X-Spec mode, using SED grism as cross-disperser Modified two slits to provide short (20 arcsec or 30 arcsec) heights for support of X-D spec mode (2011/07). See updated slit table. K-band Imaging Polarimetry (K-Pol) Software: IDL GUI-based reduction tools available : New Spectroscopy Reduction Cookbook, and new spectroscopy GUI tools (BRT - baseline removal tool; SCT - spectra combiner; SAT - spectrum annotator) MSP-BDP - Basic Data Processing MSP-WCT - Spec. Wavelength Calibration MSP-CCS - Clean and Coadd Spectra MSP-SXC - Spec. spectrum extractor MSP-ZHT - Zero Hop Tester (for polarimetry) MSP-PPOL - Polarimetry Analysis - updated to support K-Pol mode MSP-PPT - Polarimetry Plotting Tool Proposals to use Mimir and the Perkins: Next BU deadline will be in June '20, for observing during 2020-Q3 (July, August, September) . Note: Mimir is generally unavailable for some of July and August for annual servicing. [Probably won't happen summer 2020 due to COVID-19]