EDiFiSE: equalized and diffraction-limited field spectrograph experiment

García-Lorenzo, B.; Fuensalida, J. J.; Rodríguez-Hernández, M. A. C.; Alonso, A.; Barreto, M.; Gracia-Temich, F.; Martín, Y.; Rodríguez, L. F.; Viera, T.; Padilla, Y.; Fernández, A.; Escobar-Romero, J. F. M.
Referencia bibliográfica

Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II. Edited by McLean, Ian S.; Casali, Mark M. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 7014, pp. 70144B-70144B-10 (2008).

Fecha de publicación:
8
2008
Número de autores
12
Número de autores del IAC
12
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
We present EDiFiSE, a prototype instrument for the observation of high-contrast systems, combining an adaptive optics (AO) system and an equalized integral field unit (EIFU). The design of the AO system takes into account the statistical behaviour of the atmospheric turbulence structure at the Canary Islands (Spain) astronomical observatories: Roque de los Muchachos (ORM) on the island of La Palma and Teide observatory (OT) in Tenerife. The AO will have the capability of adapting to the prevailing turbulence conditions; in this sense, the EDiFiSE AO unit will be an 'adaptable' adaptive optics system. The corrected beam feeds an hexagonal integral field unit formed by 331 micro-lenslets, which focus the intensity distribution at the focal plane into 331 optical fibers. The central seven fibers of the bundle include variable attenuators for the equalization of these fibers output intensities, matching them to the dynamical range of the detector and reducing the optical cross talk inside the spectrograph. This technique, called equalized integral field spectroscopy (Arribas, Mediavilla & Fuensalida 19981), permits to obtain spectral and spatial information of the equalized object and its surroundings as well as accurate relative photometry and astrometry.