Daily Image

18-12-2007
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X-shooter First Light

Submitter: Ramón Navarro
Description: Yesterday the X-shooter NIR team achieved first laboratory light at ASTRON in Dwingeloo. Last few weeks of the integration phase were intense, climaxing during last weekend with the first cool down of the full system.

In this first light image the near-infrared spectrum is displayed as observed by the HAWAII-II RG detector. The main dispersion in the X-direction is generated by the Echelle Grating, while the cross-dispersion in the Y-direction is generated by 3 Prisms in double pass. The longest wavelength (2.5 microns) is located in the upper right and the shortest wavelength (1.0 microns) in the lower left.

A tilted slit with 5 pinholes is used as a source for this spectrum. Mercury lines from fluorescent light in the laboratory emerge as short vertical lines in a particular order. Heat radiation is visible in the K-band in the lowest order at the top of the image. The detector is tilted in order to have good focus at least somewhere on the detector. While the spots on the right are perfectly in focus, the image on the left is out of focus.

The X-shooter NIR Spectrograph will be delivered to ESO after an upgrade of the grating and putting the detector at the correct focus position. The plan is to install X-shooter at Paranal in Q3 2008.
Copyright: X-shooter Team
 
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