Skip Navigation | ANU Home | Search ANU | Directories

RSAA News of the Month: October 2002

First Light for NIFS

 

The multi-million dollar NIFS (Near-Infra-red Integral Field Spectrograph) project passed a major milestone in mid-September. Assembly of the optical components was completed and tests show that they work near-perfectly. The optics are now being installed in the main body of the instrument, the Cryostat, ready for testing under operating conditions in October.

NIFS is being developed for the Gemini 8m telescope in Hawaii. By combining the superb image quality of the Gemini telescope and its adaptive optics system with the high spatial and spectral resolution achievable with NIFS, astronomers will be able to study the infrared structure of astronomical objects on scales comparable to those achieved with the Hubble Space Telescope in visible light.

The pictures below show the vital component, the Integral Field Unit (IFU), and the first test image. Each small bright strip in the image is the spectrum of a slice across the object being measured. In operation, NIFS will take the spectrum of the target at 29 different locations simultaneously. The triple slit pattern at the centre is due to light reflected from the mountings in the image slicer stack. These will eventually be shielded, but for now they provide a useful reference marker.

These pictures were taken with the pupil and field mirror arrays in their nominal positions (with no adjustment). Some fine tuning of the mirror array positions may be required.

IFU field mirror array

Mounted mirror arrays

First image with NIFS

A happy team

For other "RSAA News of the Month", click here

©RSAA Oct 2002