Mimir is the
name (not acronym) for a facility-class infrared instrument
built at our IAR lab and at Lowell Observatory. Mimir saw first
light on the 1.8 meter Perkins telescope outside Flagstaff, Arizona
on August 19, 2004. It is now one of two facility-class instruments in regular use on Boston University's Perkins Telescope Observatory (PTO) outside Flagstaff, Arizona.
Mimir is a multi-function
instrument that covers a broad wavelength range and allows users
to perform complex observations with a single instrument. The three
main functions Mimir performs are imaging (much as a camera takes
pictures), spectroscopy (decomposing infrared star light into its
constituent colors), and polarimetry. (click here for the article describing Mimir in the December 2007 issue of PASP).
Mimirs
wavelength coverage is from 1 to 5 micro-meters, or from about twice
the wavelength of green light to about ten times that wavelength.
This near-infrared light passes through the earths atmosphere
only in a few bands of wavelengths (click here
to see a plot). These bands are identified by letters, running from
the shortest wavelength band, called J, through H, K, L, and M.
Mimir is open
for regular scheduling and use by certified PTO users. Mimir's schedule
usage on the PTO for the current quarter may be found
on the PTO web site .
Eye Candy - Example Images and Spectra
NEWS
- (click links to see details)
Observing:
Hardware:
- Slit has lost home limit sensing. Can be used, but carefully. Contact DPC or MH for work-arounds
Upgrades:
- IZYJ (0.82-1.36um) spec filter, though not much light shortward of 1.0um (see A0V Star raw spectrum)
- 2nd order (0.8-1.274um) has much higher grism efficiency than 1st order (~6x more), and higher than in JHK-spec mode for the short half of J-band. Useable down to about 0.95um. Looks wonderful at He 1.083um.
- IZYJ-X-Spec mode, using SED grism as cross-disperser
- Modified two slits to provide short (20 arcsec or 30 arcsec) heights for support of X-D spec mode (2011/07). See updated slit table.
- K-band Imaging Polarimetry (K-Pol)
Software:
IDL GUI-based reduction tools available :
- New Spectroscopy Reduction Cookbook, and new spectroscopy GUI tools (BRT - baseline removal tool; SCT - spectra combiner; SAT - spectrum annotator)
- MSP-BDP - Basic Data Processing
- MSP-WCT - Spec. Wavelength
Calibration
- MSP-CCS - Clean and Coadd Spectra
- MSP-SXC - Spec. spectrum extractor
- MSP-ZHT - Zero Hop Tester (for polarimetry)
- MSP-PPOL - Polarimetry Analysis - updated to support K-Pol mode
- MSP-PPT - Polarimetry Plotting Tool
Proposals to use Mimir and the Perkins:
- Next BU deadline will be in June '22, for observing during 2022-Q3 (July, Aug, Sept) .
Note: Mimir is generally unavailable for some of July and August for annual servicing.
For summer 2022, we plan to have the telescope mirrors realuminized, so expect ~1 month of downtime, starting 8/8/2022
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