English

CORMASS: A Compact and Efficient NIR Spectrograph for Studying Low-Mass Objects

Astrophysics 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

CorMASS (Cornell Massachusetts Slit Spectrograph) is a compact, low-resolution (R=300), double-pass prism cross-dispersed near-infrared (NIR) spectrograph in operation on the Palomar Observatory 60-inch telescope. Its 2-dimensional spectral format provides simultaneous coverage from lambda ~ 0.75 microns to lambda ~ 2.5 microns (z'JHK bands). A remotely operated cold flip mirror permits its NICMOS3 detector to function as a K_s slit viewer to assist object placement into the 2 arcsec x 15 arcsec slit. CorMASS was primarily designed for the rapid spectral classification of low-mass stellar and sub-stellar objects identified by the Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). CorMASS' efficiency and resolution also make it a versatile instrument for the spectral observation and classification of many other types of bright objects (K<14) including quasars, novae, and emission line objects.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0011062,
  title  = {CORMASS: A Compact and Efficient NIR Spectrograph for Studying Low-Mass Objects},
  author = {J. C. Wilson and M. F. Skrutskie and M. R. Colonno and A. T. Enos and J. D. Smith and C. P. Henderson and J. E. Gizis and D. G. Monet and J. R. Houck},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0011062},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

To be published in Feb 2001 PASP, 19 pages, 12 Figures, High Resolution file can be retrieved from ftp://iras2.tn.cornell.edu/pub/wilson/papers/cormass.ps.gz