The Oxford SWIFT spectrograph, an I & z band (6500-10500 A) integral field spectrograph, is designed to operate as a
facility instrument at the 200 inch Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain, in conjunction with the Palomar laser guide star
adaptive optics system PALAO (and its upgrade to PALM3000). SWIFT provides spectra at R(≡λ/▵λ)~4000 of a
contiguous two-dimensional field, 44 x 89 spatial pixels (spaxels) in size, at spatial scales of 0.235";, 0.16", and 0.08" per
spaxel. It employs two 250μm thick, fully depleted, extremely red sensitive 4k X 2k CCD detector arrays (manufactured
by LBNL) that provide excellent quantum efficiency out to 1000 nm.
We describe the commissioning observations and present the measured values of a number of instrument parameters. We
also present some first science results that give a taste of the range of science programs where SWIFT can have a
substantial impact.
We present the manufacturing and first results from testing and characterising the SWIFT image slicer. The SWIFT
image slicer design is based on the MPE-3D and SPIFFI image slicers. It uses plane mirrors to slice the input field but
through a novel, de-magnifying design, using a mosaic of spherical lenses, it achieves a considerable de-magnification.
Classical polishing techniques can be applied to manufacture both plane and spherical surfaces with very high surface
accuracy and quality reducing aberrations and scattered light. The SWIFT image slicer was manufactured over a 18
months period and was delivered to Oxford in September 2007. The commissioning of the SWIFT instrument will take
place in August/September 2008.
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