This paper presents an overview of a step scanning mechanism employing a flexure stage coupled with a dynamically aligned mirror used in the SpIOMM (Spectrometre Imageur de l'Observatoire du Mont Megantic) instrument, an Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (IFTS) concept for ground based telescopes produced in collaboration with ABB and Universite Laval. This instrument can acquire spectra of variable resolutions up to R = λ/Δλ = 10 000 from the near UV to the near IR (350 nm to 900 nm). It is designed to fit the f/8 focus of the Mont Megantic (Quebec, Canada) 1.6m optical telescope. The innovative aspect of this instrument compared to other imaging spectrometers is the spatial coverage. The FOV covers spans of 12 arc minutes in diameter with a pixel sampling of 0.55 arc seconds. Hence spectra of more than a million scene elements are acquired at each measurement.

Date Published: 6 July 2006
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6273, Optomechanical Technologies for Astronomy, 62731N (6 July 2006);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6273:
Optomechanical Technologies for Astronomy
Eli Atad-Ettedgui; Joseph Antebi; Dietrich Lemke, Editor(s)