An Instrument Proposed for Gemini
Peter J. McGregor , Peter Conroy , Gabe Bloxham , Jan van Harmelen, PASA, 16 (3), 273.
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Introduction
The potential cancellation of the clone of the Gemini Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS) for Gemini South led the International Gemini Project Office in late 1998 to consider alternative ways of achieving a near-infrared spectroscopic capability on this telescope as soon as possible after operational handover which is expected to occur in the second half of 2001. The Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University has proposed to design, construct, and commission a fast-tracked, low-cost, near-infrared, integral-field spectrograph on Gemini. The aim is to provide an optimised near-infrared spectroscopic capability at the Gemini telescope on the shortest possible timescale and at modest cost. The design of the instrument is based on the premise that under these constraints the Gemini consortium will be best served by a targeted instrument which produces data of the highest quality for a restricted range of applications.
The Near-infrared Integral-Field Spectrograph (NIFS) will target velocity measurements in galaxies to study the demographics of black holes in galactic nuclei and the evolution of structural properties in high redshift galaxies. NIFS will also be applied to a wide range of general astronomy topics, but these will not dictate the instrument design. Economies of cost and timescale can be realised by packaging the NIFS integral field unit (IFU) spectrograph in a duplicate of the NIRI cryostat, duplicating the NIRI On-Instrument Wavefront Sensor (OIWFS), and duplicating the NIRI control system and EPICS software with only minimal essential change. Further economies of cost and timescale will be achieved by restricting the IFU spectrograph to only two mechanisms; a duplicate of the NIRI focal plane mask wheel and a grating wheel adapted from the NIRI beamsplitter wheel mechanism.
The NIFS science drivers and design are desribed in this paper. The NIFS proposal was recommended by the Gemini Instrument Forum at its March 1999 meeting and the Gemini Science Committee at its April 1999 meeting. The Gemini Board approved proceeding with the Conceptual Design Study at its May 1999 meeting.
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