AAS 195th Meeting, January 2000
Session 109. Extrasolar Planets and Low Mass Objects
Display, Saturday, January 15, 2000, 9:20am-4:00pm, Grand Hall

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[109.03] CorMASS: A Spectrograph for the Classification of Candidate Low-Mass Objects

J.C. Wilson (Cornell University), M.F. Skrutskie (University of Massachusetts), M.R. Colonno, A.T. Enos, C.P. Henderson, J.D. Smith (Cornell University), J.E. Gizis (University of Massachusetts), D.G. Monet (USNO Flagstaff Station), J.R. Houck (Cornell University)

We present low-resolution (R~300) near-infrared spectra of late-M, L and T-dwarfs observed with the recently built and commissioned Cornell Massachusetts Slit Spectrograph (CorMASS). This instrument was designed with the primary scientific purpose of spectrally confirming and classifying candidate low-mass stellar and sub-stellar objects identified by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). CorMASS is a prism cross-dispersed spectrograph with wavelength coverage between 0.75 - 2.5 microns. The resolution is selected to permit identification of telltale molecular features such as FeH and TiO shortward of 1.0 micron, as well as methane absorption at 1.6 microns. The instrument also features a K_s slit-viewing mode for steering candidates into the slit rapidly. CorMASS is used on the Palomar 60-inch telescope.


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