Binospec: A Wide-field Imaging Spectrograph for the MMT

Abstract

Binospec is a high throughput, 370 to 1000 nm, imaging spectrograph that addresses two adjacent 8' by 15' fields of view. Binospec was commissioned in late 2017 at the f/5 focus of the 6.5m MMT and is now available to all MMT observers. Aperture masks cut from stainless steel with a laser cutter are used to define the entrance apertures that range from 15' long slits to hundreds of 2" slitlets. System throughputs, including the MMT's mirrors and the f/5 wide-field corrector peak at ~30%. Three reflection gratings, duplicated for the two beams, provide resolutions ($\lambda$/$\Delta \lambda$) between 1300 and $>$5000 with a 1" wide slit. Two through-the-mask guiders are used for target acquisition, mask alignment, guiding, and precision offsets. A full-time Shack-Hartmann wave front sensor allows continuous adjustment of primary mirror support forces, telescope collimation and focus. Active flexure control maintains spectrograph alignment and focus under varying gravity and thermal conditions.

PASP in press; 45 pages, 59 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Hectospec, the MMT's 300 Optical Fiber-Fed Spectrograph
• The Discovery of a Gravitationally Lensed Quasar at z = 6.51
• Binospec Software System
• A Detailed Thermal Analysis of the Binospec Spectrograph

Cited by in corpus (76)

• A Kilonova Following a Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Burst at 350 Mpc
• The [OIII]$+$H$\beta$ Equivalent Width Distribution at z$\simeq$7: Implications for the Contribution of Galaxies to Reionization
• Measurements of the z ~ 6 Intergalactic Medium Optical Depth and Transmission Spikes Using a New z > 6.3 Quasar Sample
• An outflow powers the optical rise of the nearby, fast-evolving tidal disruption event AT2019qiz
• A Search for Extragalactic Fast Blue Optical Transients in ZTF and the Rate of AT2018cow-like Transients
• MMT Spectroscopy of Lyman-alpha at z$\simeq$7: Evidence for Accelerated Reionization Around Massive Galaxies
• Chronicling the Host Galaxy Properties of the Remarkable Repeating FRB 20201124A
• Transient Double-beam Spectrograph for the 2.5-m Telescope of the Caucasus Mountain Observatory of SAI MSU
• SN 2019ehk: A Double-Peaked Ca-rich Transient with Luminous X-ray Emission and Shock-Ionized Spectral Features
• The Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey: Changing-Look Quasar Candidates from Multi-Epoch Spectroscopy in SDSS-IV
• Internal dynamics and stellar content of nine ultra-diffuse galaxies in the Coma cluster prove their evolutionary link with dwarf early-type galaxies
• Strong Ly$\alpha$ Emission in an Overdense Region at $z=6.8$: A Very Large ($R\sim 3$ physical Mpc) Ionized Bubble in COSMOS?
• The ALMA REBELS Survey: Efficient Ly$\alpha$ Transmission of UV-Bright z$\simeq$7 Galaxies from Large Velocity Offsets and Broad Line Widths
• Lyman-alpha spectroscopy of extreme [OIII] emitting galaxies at $z\simeq 2-3$: Implications for Ly$\alpha$ visibility and LyC leakage at $z>6$
• Binospec Software System
• The Spectacular Ultraviolet Flash From the Peculiar Type Ia Supernova 2019yvq
• Rest-frame UV spectroscopy of extreme [OIII] emitters at $1.3<z<3.7$: Toward a high-redshift UV reference sample for JWST
• Luminous Supernovae: Unveiling a Population Between Superluminous and Normal Core-collapse Supernovae
• The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transient incoherent-sum survey
• High-resolution spectroscopy of SN 2017hcc and its blueshifted line profiles from post-shock dust formation
• Sporadic radio pulses from a white dwarf binary at the orbital period
• Detection of Late-Time Circumstellar Interaction of SN 2017eaw in NGC 6946
• The Luminous and Double-Peaked Type Ic Supernova 2019stc: Evidence for Multiple Energy Sources
• Radio and Far-IR Emission Associated with a Massive Star-forming Galaxy Candidate at z$\simeq$6.8: A Radio-Loud AGN in the Reionization Era?
• Transforming gas-rich low-mass disky galaxies into ultra-diffuse galaxies by ram pressure
• Turbulence and Energetic Particles in Radiative Shock Waves in the Cygnus Loop I: Shock Properties
• Probing the radial acceleration relation and the strong equivalence principle with the Coma cluster ultra-diffuse galaxies
• Limit on Supernova Emission in the Brightest Gamma-ray Burst, GRB 221009A
• SN 2017gci: a nearby Type I Superluminous Supernova with a bumpy tail
• SN 2022acko: the First Early Far-Ultraviolet Spectra of a Type IIP Supernova
• Long-term follow-up observations of extreme coronal line emitting galaxies
• Turbulence and Particle Acceleration in Radiative Shock Waves in the Cygnus Loop II: Development of Postshock Turbulence
• The JCMT SCUBA-2 Survey of the James Webb Space Telescope North Ecliptic Pole Time-Domain Field
• Multiple Peaks and a Long Precursor in the Type IIn Supernova 2021qqp: An Energetic Explosion in a Complex Circumstellar Environment
• Forecasting Chemical Abundance Precision for Extragalactic Stellar Archaeology
• Limits on Simultaneous and Delayed Optical Emission from Well-localized Fast Radio Bursts
• Detection of the Red Supergiant Wind from the Progenitor of Cassiopeia A
• The Early Light Curve of SN 2023bee: Constraining Type Ia Supernova Progenitors the Apian Way
• The NuSTAR Extragalactic Survey of the James Webb Space Telescope North Ecliptic Pole Time-Domain Field
• The Blue Supergiant Progenitor of the Supernova Imposter AT~2019krl
• A Larger Extent for the Ophiuchus Stream
• Characterizing the Rapid Hydrogen Disappearance in SN2022crv: Evidence of a Continuum between Type Ib and IIb Supernova Properties
• PEARLS: NuSTAR and XMM-Newton Extragalactic Survey of the JWST North Ecliptic Pole Time-Domain Field II
• The First Two Years of FLEET: an Active Search for Superluminous Supernovae
• J-NEP: 60-band photometry and photometric redshifts for the James Webb Space Telescope North Ecliptic Pole Time-Domain Field
• A Precursor Plateau and Pre-Maximum [O II] Emission in the Superluminous SN2019szu: A Pulsational Pair-Instability Candidate
• SN 2020udy: a SN Iax with strict limits on interaction consistent with a helium-star companion
• Newly Discovered Wolf-Rayet Stars in M31
• SAGUARO: Time-domain Infrastructure for the Fourth Gravitational-wave Observing Run and Beyond
• Contemporaneous optical-radio observations of a fast radio burst in a close galaxy pair
• SN 2022joj: A Peculiar Type Ia Supernova Possibly Driven by an Asymmetric Helium-shell Double Detonation
• Ultraviolet Spectral Evidence for Ansky as a Slowly Evolving Featureless Tidal Disruption Event with Quasiperiodic Eruptions
• Validation of Emission-Line Galaxies Target Selection Algorithms for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Using the MMT Binospec
• Estimating Statistical Uncertainties of Internal Kinematics of Galaxies and Star Clusters Derived Using Full Spectrum Fitting
• Center for Astrophysics Optical Infrared Science Archive. I. FAST Spectrograph
• SN 2023zaw: an ultra-stripped, nickel-poor supernova from a low-mass progenitor
• Spectroscopy of an extreme [OIII] emitting active galactic nucleus at $z=3.212$: implications for the reionisation era
• Evidence for a hot galactic halo around the Andromeda Galaxy using fast radio bursts along two sightlines
• Disappearance of a massive star in the Andromeda Galaxy due to formation of a black hole
• The Compilation and Validation of the Spectroscopic Redshift Catalogs for the DESI-COSMOS and DESI-XMMLSS Fields
• JWSTs PEARLS: NIRCam imaging and NIRISS spectroscopy of a $z=3.6$ star-forming galaxy lensed into a near-Einstein Ring by a $z=1.258$ massive elliptical galaxy
• A hot white dwarf merger remnant revealed by an ultraviolet detection of carbon
• KDG 64: a large dwarf spheroidal or a small ultradiffuse satellite of Messier 81
• A Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Ionised Gas Emission (VESTIGE). XIX. The discovery of a spectacular 230 kpc Halpha tail following NGC 4569 in the Virgo cluster
• Optical Observations and Modeling of the Superluminous Supernova 2018lfe
• SN 2024iss: A Double-peaked Type IIb Supernova with Evidence of Circumstellar Interaction
• Late-Time Hubble Space Telescope Observations of a Hydrogen-Poor Superluminous Supernova Reveal the Power-Law Decline of a Magnetar Central Engine
• Weak Mass Loss from the Red Supergiant Progenitor of the Type II SN 2021yja
• The Type IIn SN 2025cbj coincidence with the high-energy neutrino IceCube-250421A
• The miniJPAS and J-NEP surveys: Machine learning for star-galaxy separation
• A Multiwavelength Portrait of the 3C 220.3 Lensed System
• Spectroscopy of AT 2016blu's recurring supernova impostor outbursts
• Redshifts of Objects near 3C 220.3
• The Unusual Weak-Line Quasar PG1407+265 and its Foreground z~0.7 X-ray Cluster
• Discovery of a Featureless Tidal Disruption Event at z~1 with the Wide Field Survey Telescope
• Detection of a weak magnetic field in the Balmer emission line white dwarf WDJ1653-1001