Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2004 · 107 citations · 0 references
Natural SciencesAstronomyPhysicsAstrophysicsOptical AstronomyOpticsHolographyInfrared TelescopesNear-infrared AstronomyOptical InstrumentationSpace-based Infrared ObservatoriesTelescope OpticsMultiwavelength ObservingOptical Telescope SystemsPhase GratingsResolutionsTelescopes
AAOmega is a new spectrograph for the existing 2dF and SPIRAL multifibre systems on the Ango-Australian Telescope. It is a bench-mounted, dual-beamed, articulating, all-Schmidt design, using volume phase holographic gratings. The wavelength range is 370-950nm, with spectral resolutions from 1400-10000. Throughput, spectral coverage, and maximum resolution are all more than doubled compared with the existing 2dF spectrographs, and stability is increased by orders of magnitude. These features allow entirely new classes of observation to be undertaken, as well as dramatically improving existing ones. AAOmega is scheduled for delivery and commissioning in Semester 2005B.