First light (at ING): July 1991
Designed and built by: Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestriche Physik, Garching
Description: FAST is the Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestriche Physik (MPE) Fabry-Perot array high-resolution spectrometer. It was designed by the group of Professor Reinhard Genzel, and is used specially to study near-infrared emission-line sources (around 2 microns)in Galactic and extragalactic objects. FAST is at the Cassegrain focus of the WHT.
The spectrometer consists of a 62x58 pixel InSb array from Santa Barbara Research Corporation. It is operated at only 6K. This gives FAST a typical dark current of about 50e per second and a readout noise below 280 e.
Time allocations:
Nights scheduled since semester 2007B
More:
R Clegg et al., 1991, "FAST on the WHT", Gemini Newsletter, 34, 1.
Research impact:
Scientific highlights (1)
Publications (10 from ING paper count)
