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K.A. Janes, D.P. Clemens, M.N. Hayes-Gehrke, J.D. Eastman, D.S. Sarcia, A.S. Bosh (Boston University)
The Perkins Re-Imaging SysteM (PRISM) achieved first light on November 2, 2003; PRISM meets our design goals and is reliable and easy to use. We now consider PRISM to be operational. This is the first stage in a program to reinstrument the 1.83-meter Perkins Telescope, located at the Lowell Observatory Anderson Mesa Observing site and operated by Boston University and Lowell Observatory. PRISM reduces the f/17.5 cassegrain focal ratio by a factor of four to f/4.34, yielding a 13.65 X 13.65 arc-minute field of view on a 2048 X 2048 pixel Fairchild CCD (0.39 arcseconds per pixel). In the collimated beam near the telescope exit pupil, three wheels can be fitted with filters, grisms, and polarimetric elements. In its polarimetric mode, PRISM will be able to do imaging polarimetry over the entire field (in two exposures). With half-wave and quarter-wave plates and a Wollaston prism, the full Stokes parameters are measurable across the field. Low-resolution, multi-object spectroscopy, with user-defined focal-plane masks is also a capability. We will present the results of several projects undertaken during the commissioning period, including photometry of a distant open cluster Be 20, recovery of a Kuiper belt object and a study of stellar activity.
This project has been supported by the NSF, Boston University and Lowell Observatory.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
© YEAR. The American Astronomical Soceity.