Check the NOAO site to make sure that your favorite instrument and telescope are available before writing your proposal!
Availability of the Blanco in 2012A: Starting 20 Feb 2012, CTIO will shut down the Blanco 4-m for several months for
the installation and commissioning of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam). Due to the complexity of this installation, involving
significant work to the telescope structure and control systems, the telescope will be unavailable for most of the 2012A
semester. We anticipate roughly four weeks of community time in 2012A (in June or July) with f/8, during which we will
make Hydra and ISPI available for community use, although probably via service or remote observing to maintain flexibility
in the telescope and DECam commissioning schedule. For more information see the article by Chris Smith on page 20
of the September 2011 issue of the NOAO Newsletter.
| Instrument |
FOV or slit (arcmin) |
Resolving Power or Scale (arcsec/pix) |
Detector |
Wavelegth range (micron) |
Status |
|
DECam Wide field optical imager |
132x132 | 0.27 |
62x 2048x4096 CCDs |
0.32-1.10 (grizy filters) |
Commissioning, Science Verification, & Available 2012B |
|
ISPI IR imager |
10.25x10.25 | 0.3 |
HAWAII-2 2048X2048 4-m R-C |
1.0-2.4 (JHKs + narrow band filters) |
Unavailable 2012B (due to f/8 incident) |
|
Hydra Multi-object optical spectrograph |
40 140 fibers |
<50,000 | SITe 4Kx2K (*) | 0.32-0.90 |
Unavailable 2012B (due to f/8 incident) |
(*) These detectors are going to be changed.
See also:
Observing at SOAR
SOAR Instrumentation
SOAR Instrument Setup Forms and Observing Reports
SOAR Adaptive Module (SAM)
| Instrument |
FOV or slit (arcmin) |
Resolving Power or Scale (arcsec/pix) |
Detector |
Wavelength range (micron) |
Status |
|
SOI Optical imager |
5.25x5.25 | 0.077 |
E2V CCD mini-mosaic 2x 4096x2048 |
0.31-1.05 | Available 2012B |
|
Goodman HTS Optical imager |
7.2 diameter | 0.15 |
Fairchild CCD 4096x4096 |
0.36-0.92 | Available 2012B |
|
Goodman HST Optical spectrograph |
3.0x5.0 |
VPH gratings 1,400-6,000 |
Fairchild CCD 4096x4096 |
0.36-0.92 |
Available 2012B (single slit mode) |
|
Spartan IR imager |
3.0x3.0 (f/21) 5.0x5.0 (f/12) |
0.043 (f/21) 0.073 (f/12) |
HAWAII-2 HgCdTe mosaic 4x 2048X2048 |
1.0-2.2 (JHK + narrow band filters) |
Available 2012B |
|
OSIRIS IR imager |
3.2X3.2 1.3X1.3 |
0.321 0.139 |
NICMOS4 HgCdTe 1024x1024 |
1.0-2.5 (YJHKKs + narrow band filters) |
Available 2012B |
|
OSIRIS IR spectrograph |
175x0.98 66x0.41 24x0.98 |
1,200-3,000 1,400 X-disp |
HgCdTe 1024x1024 |
1.0-2.2 (YJHKKs + narrow band filters) |
Available 2012B |
|
SIFS Optical spectrograph |
IFU 7.8X1.5@0.3" 3.9X7.5@0.15" |
VPH gratings 1,000-30,000 |
CCD mini-mosaic 2x4096x4096 |
0.32-0.85 | Commissioning 2012B |
| Telescope | Instrument | Slit or FOV (arcmin) |
Resolving Power or scale (arcsec/pix) |
Wavelength range (micron) or Filters |
Observing Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1.5-m (60-inch) |
1.5-m R-C Spectrograph |
single slit 1.5 | <10,000 | 0.32-0.90 | Entirely service/queue mode. |
| CHIRON Spectrograph | one star | <80,000 | 0.41-0.87 | ||
|
1.3-m (ex-2MASS) |
ANDICAM Optical imager |
2.4x2.4 |
0.274 (Binning 2x2) |
BVRI | Entirely service/queue mode |
|
ANDICAM IR imager |
6.0x6.0 |
0.369 (Binning 2x2) |
YJHK | ||
|
1.0-m ex-YALO |
Y4K CAM Optical imager |
20.0x20.0 | 0.289 |
BVRcIc SDSS ugriz U+CuSO4 |
Classical only. Observers may be asked to observe ~1 hour/night for "spill-over" programs from the 1.3m, requested time will be extended in compensation. |
|
0.9-m (36-inch) |
CFCCD 2K Optical imager |
13.6x13.6 | 0.401 | 0.31-1.00 | Mixture of classical and service/queue observing, each run is 7 nights duration. |
CTIO Instruments No Longer Available
CTIO Mosaic II - optical wide field imager (inactive)
4-m RC Spectrograph (retired)
NEWFIRM - infrared wide field imager (transfered back to Mayall 4-m at Kitt Peak)