Technique of Polarimetric Observations of Faint Objects at the 6-m BTA Telescope

TL;DR

This paper details a spectropolarimetric observation technique using the SCORPIO instrument on the 6-m BTA telescope, including data reduction algorithms and demonstration on various astronomical objects.

Contribution

It introduces a new observational technique and data processing algorithm for spectropolarimetry with the SCORPIO instrument at the 6-m BTA telescope.

Findings

Successful measurement of Stokes parameters in a new observational mode

Demonstrated capabilities on various astronomical objects

Provided detailed instrument characteristics and data reduction procedures

Abstract

We describe the technique of spectropolarimetric observations allowing for the measurements of the Stokes parameters in one of the observational modes of the SCORPIO focal reducer of the 6-m BTA telescope of the SAO RAS. The characteristics of the instrument in the spectropolarimetric mode of observations are given. We present the algorithm of observational data reduction. The capabilities of the SCORPIO spectropolarimetric mode are demonstrated on the examples of observations of various astronomical objects.