The MagE spectrograph

Abstract

The Magellan Echellette (MagE) spectrograph is a single-object optical echellette spectrograph for the Magellan Clay telescope. MagE has been designed to have high throughput in the blue; the peak throughput is 22% at 5600 Å including the telescope. The wavelength coverage includes the entire optical window (3100 Å - 1 μm). The spectral resolution for a 1" slit is R~4100. MagE is a very simple spectrograph with only four moving parts, prism cross-dispersion, and a vacuum Schmidt camera. The instrument saw first light in November 2007 and is now routinely taking science observations.