English

Operational capabilities and on-sky performance of SAMOS at the completion of science commissioning

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2026-06-29 v1

Abstract

We present the operational capabilities and on-sky performance of the SOAR Adaptive Module Optical Spectrograph (SAMOS) at the completion of its science commissioning phase. SAMOS is a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD)-based multi-object spectrograph and imager installed behind the SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM) ground-layer adaptive optics system. The instrument relays the full 3 x 3 arcmin AO-corrected field onto a large-format DMD, where each micromirror can direct light to either a spectroscopic or a parallel imaging channel. This architecture enables programmable slit-mask patterns that can be generated and reconfigured within seconds. SAMOS provides low-resolution spectroscopy over the 4000-10000 A wavelength range at resolving power R ~ 2500 and high-resolution spectroscopy (R ~ 10,000) in the 4500-5150 A and 6 000-7000 A bands. We summarize the operational workflow established during commissioning, including target acquisition, astrometric registration, DMD slit-mask generation, simultaneous imaging and spectroscopy, and automated data reduction. Science-verification observations demonstrate accurate target acquisition, reliable programmable slit-mask operation, multiplexed spectroscopy of crowded stellar fields, wavelength-calibration accuracy of about 0.3 A, and end-to-end spectrophotometric calibration through the combination of imaging and spectroscopic data. These results establish SAMOS as a unique facility instrument that combines adaptive-optics-assisted imaging, programmable multi-object spectroscopy, and rapid slit-mask reconfiguration for efficient spectroscopic surveys, transient follow-up, and studies of crowded stellar populations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2606.30207,
  title  = {Operational capabilities and on-sky performance of SAMOS at the completion of science commissioning},
  author = {Massimo Robberto and Stephen A. Smee and Robert H. Barkhouser and Stephen C. Hope and John J. Piotrowski and Dana Koeppe and Mario Gennaro and Zoran Ninkov and Megan E. Donahue and Andrei Tokovinin and Randolph P. Hammond and Albert J. Harding},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.30207},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, from July 5-10, 2026