Development of the ROSIE Integral Field Unit on the Magellan IMACS Spectrograph

TL;DR

The paper describes the development of ROSIE, an integral field unit for the IMACS spectrograph on the Magellan Telescope, designed to enhance spatially-resolved astronomical observations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel image slicer IFU with a large field of view and specific slicing architecture for the IMACS spectrograph, including design, fabrication, and implementation details.

Findings

Optics are in-hand and first slicer is being aluminized.

Mounts are under design and software development is underway.

The IFU will enable efficient mapping of extended astronomical objects.

Abstract

We are building an image slicer integral field unit (IFU) to go on the IMACS wide-field imaging spectrograph on the Magellan Baade Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, the Reformatting Optically-Sensitive IMACS Enhancement IFU, or ROSIE IFU. The 50.4" x 53.5" field of view will be pre-sliced into four 12.6" x 53.5" subfields, and then each subfield will be divided into 21 0.6" x 53.5" slices. The four main image slicers will produce four pseudo-slits spaced six arcminutes apart across the IMACS f/2 camera field of view, providing a wavelength coverage of 1800 Angstroms at a spectral resolution of 2000. Optics are in-hand, the first image slicer is being aluminized, mounts are being designed and fabricated, and software is being written. This IFU will enable the efficient mapping of extended objects such as nebulae, galaxies, or outflows, making it a powerful addition to IMACS.