Instruments
SOAR Instrumentation
- (Click here for information on Optical data for the SOAR telescope and SOAR Optical Imager (SOI) Foci)
- (Click SOI and OSIRIS Exposure time calculator (new))
The SOAR Telescope is designed to carry a large instrument payload. An Instrument Support Box (ISB) at each Nasmyth focus can carry a cluster of three instruments with a total weight of up to 3000kg, and contains a shared Tip-Tilt guider and calibration unit. Two "Folded Cassegrain" ports on the elevation ring can each support an additional smaller instrument weighing up to 300kg. A third such port holds the Calibration Wavefront Sensor used to tune the Active Optical System. The system is designed to allow the observer to switch between instruments, several of which will be “science ready” at any time, within a few minutes. The tertiary mirror rotates to select the focal station in use while beam steering optics within each ISB direct the light to the chosen instrument.
First Generation Instruments
The SOAR consortium has a strong instrumentation program with each partner slated to provide one instrument by the start of operation, and with two second generation instruments already in the conceptual design stage. The initial instrument compliment is designed to fully exploit SOAR’s exquisite, Tip-Tilt image quality at near IR wavelengths, as well as serving the strong partnership interest in imaging and spectroscopy in the blue/UV.
Key properties of the first generation instruments are given in the table below. Follow the links in the table for full details.
| Imagers | FOV (arcmin) | Scale (arcsec/pixel) | Detector | Wavelength Range (micron) | Status | |
| Optical | SOAR Optical Imager | 5.25 x 5.25 | 0.077 | E2V CCD mini-mosaic 2 x 4096x2048 | 0.31-1.05 | A |
| Goodman HTS | 5.0 x 5.0 | 0.15 | Fairchild CCD 4096x4096 | 0.32-0.85 | B | |
| IR | Spartan IR Camera | 2.5 x 5.0 1.5 x 3.0 | 0.073 0.043 | HgCdTe mosaic 2 x 2048 x2048 | 1.0-2.2 | C |
| OSIRIS | 3.3 x 3.3 1.3 x 1.3 | 0.32 0.13 | HgCdTe 1024 x 1024 | 1.0-2.2 | A | |
| Spectrographs | FOV | Resolving Power | Detector | Wavelength Range (micron) | Status | |
| Optical | Goodman HTS | Multislit 5.0 x 2.5 arcmin | VPH gratings 1,400-6000 | Fairchild CCD 4096x4096 | 0.32-0.85 | B |
| SIFS | IFU 7.8x15 @ 0.3" 3.9x7.5 @ 0.15" | VPH gratings 1,000-40,000 | CCD mini-mosaic 2 x 4096x2048 | 0.32-0.85 | D | |
| IR | OSIRIS | 175" x 0.98" 66" x 0.41" 24" x 0.98" | 1,200 J, H or K 3,000 J, H or K 1,400 X-disp | HgCdTe 1024 x 1024 | 1.0-2.2 | A |
| Phoenix | Echelle Single order 90,000 | InSb 1024 x 1024 | 1.0-5.0 | C | ||
Notes On Instrument Status:
A) In service.
B) During 2008.
C) 2008B.
D) Completion of fabrication and delivery to SOAR is currently expected to occur by mid 2009.
