Phoenix Progress

(Extracted from NOAO Newsletter No. 42, June 1995)

Larry Junco, senior instrument maker, checking the optical bench for the Phoenix foreoptics. The optical bench is being made on the MAHO numerically controlled tooling center in the NOAO machine shop. Phoenix, a high-resolution infrared spectrograph, continues to progress rapidly toward first light next winter.

Ken Hinkle

Bonus Pictures:

John Stein, senior instrument maker, is shown just after turning the support ring for the foreoptics plate. The large hole to toward John is the detector access hole. The small hole at the bottom is one of the cooler access holes.

Lyot/filter wheel. The filter wheel has 13 positions for discrete order sorting filters: an open, 1935 cm-1 (5.17 microns), 2030 cm-1 (4.93 microns), 2150 cm-1 (4.65 microns), 4220 cm-1 (2.37 microns), 4308 cm-1 (2.32 microns), 4396 cm-1 (2.27 microns), 4484 cm-1 (2.23 microns), 4572 cm-1 (2.19 microns), 4660 cm-1 (2.15 microns), 4748 cm-1 (2.11 microns), 8265 cm-1 (1.21 microns), and 9232 cm-1 (1.08 microns). Users can request a specific blocking filter. Additional filters for 2462 cm-1 (4.06 microns), 4132 cm-1 (2.42 microns), 6080 cm-1 (1.64 microns), and 7799 cm-1 (1.28 microns) are available for the instrument. Ordering a new filter takes several months. Changing filters requires notice of at minimum several months. The Lyot wheel contains stops appropriate for the 2.1 and 4 meter telescopes.