PMAS is a versatile integral field spectrograph based on the principle of a fiber-coupled lens array type of IFU. The instrument was commissioned at the Calar Alto 3.5m Telescope in May 2001. PMAS is offered as a common user instrument at Calar Alto since 2002. However, it has remained flexible enough to be used as a testbed for new observing techniques. Since the instrument is sensitive in the wavelength range from 0.35 to 1 μm, it is being used to experiment with faint object 3D spectroscopy for a variety of objects in stellar and extragalactic astronomy. Among these experiments, we have implemented a nod-shuffle mode of operation, which is a beam switching technique to achieve a high degree of sky subtraction accuracy. We describe the technical details of the special solution found for PMAS and first results obtained in test observations of faint haloes of planetary nebulae.

Date Published: 29 September 2004
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 5499, Optical and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy, (29 September 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.552034

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5499:
Optical and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy
James D. Garnett; James W. Beletic, Editor(s)