OSIRIS

The Ohio State Infrared Imager/Spectrometer (OSIRIS) is a multi-purpose infrared imager and spectrometer. Following many years of succesful use as a facility instrument on the CTIO 4-m Blanco and 1.5-m telescopes it has now moved to SOAR, where it will be installed at one of the f/16.62 Nasmyth Focii.

OSIRIS uses a 1024x1024 HgCdTe array supplied by CTIO to opperate at wavelengths from 0.9 to 2.4 microns. Internal optics allow for two plate scales and a variety of spectroscopic resolutions. Internal mechanisms control the selected filter, focal plane mask, pupil mask alignment, grating tilt, and optical arrangement. All mechanisms are user controlled and can be used to rapidly reconfigure the instrument, which allows for substantial observing flexibility.

At SOAR OSIRIS will be mounted on one of the side ports of the IR-ISB. A dichroic in the ISB will divert the IR light to OSIRIS while allowing the optical to pass to a fast readout CCD based guider which can be used to control SOAR's Tertiary Tip-Tilt mirror. The ISB also includes a facility calibration unit which provides a continuum source for flat field calibration, and line sources for wavelength calibration.

The OSIRIS configuration summary describes the main characteristics of OSIRIS when installed on SOAR. Complete information and the user's manual for the instrument will be found on the OSIRIS home page. The information in these doccuments primarily derives from the use of OSIRIS at CTIO, but they will be updated as data and experience are obtained during the recomissioning of the instrument at SOAR.

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The Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope is a 4.1 meter aperture telescope designed to produce the best quality images of any observatory in its class in the world. It was funded by a a partnership between the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the country of Brazil, Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). SOAR is situated on Cerro Pachón at an altitude of 2,700 meters (8,775 feet) above sea level, at the western edge of the peaks of the Chilean Andes.