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Session 75 - Infrared Instrumentation.
Display session, Wednesday, January 15
Metropolitan Ballroom,
We present a first light report on TGIRS, Denver University Astronomy Program's new Two Grating mid-InfraRed Spectrometer. The instrument was designed and assembled in a little over a year, has been tested in the lab and will be acquiring data at a telescope. This spectrometer was built specifically to study mid-IR silicate features of Long Period Variable stars. We plan to present alignment and throughput test results, along with sample spectra over its bandpass of 7 to 14 microns, at a resolution of about 750.
A novel feature of TGIRS is its use of a mechanical cryocooling system that utilizes a Gifford-McMahon cryocooler. We will report on the success of vibrational isolation of the detector and optics from the piston action. The design and construction of this instrument forms the basis for a PhD thesis by graduate student M. Creech-Eakman. We plan for TGIRS to become a facility instrument at our newly built Meyer-Womble Observatory, one of the highest observatories in the world, at an elevation of 14,148 feet, atop Mt. Evans near Denver. From this vantage, above 90 percent of the telluric water vapor, we anticipate that substantial quantities of high-quality spectra can be obtained for monitoring studies.
