Science Commissioning of NIHTS: The Near-infrared High Throughput Spectrograph on the Lowell Discovery Telescope
arXiv:2103.12722 · doi:10.1088/1538-3873/abe2f4
Abstract
The Near-Infrared High Throughput Spectrograph (NIHTS) is in operation on the 4.3 m Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) in Happy Jack, AZ. NIHTS is a low-resolution spectrograph (R~200) that operates from 0.86 to 2.45 microns. NIHTS is fed by a custom dichroic mirror which reflects near-infrared wavelengths to the spectrograph and transmits the visible to enable simultaneous imaging with the Large Monolithic Imager (LMI), an independent visible wavelength camera. The combination of premier tracking and acquisition capabilities of the LDT, a several arcminutes field of view on LMI, and high spectral throughput on NIHTS enables novel studies of a number of astrophysical and planetary objects including Kuiper Belt Objects, asteroids, comets, low mass stars, and exoplanet hosts stars. We present a summary of NIHTS operations, commissioning, data reduction procedures with two approaches for the correction of telluric absorption features, and an overview of select science cases that will be pursued by Lowell Observatory, Northern Arizona University, and LDT partners.
arXiv comment16 Pages, 19 Figures, 2 Tables, Accepted to PASP
References in corpus (37)
- A Method of Correcting Near-Infrared Spectra for Telluric Absorption
- Constraining the Age-Activity Relation for Cool Stars: The SDSS DR5 Low-Mass Star Spectroscopic Sample
- A ground-based transmission spectrum of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ1214b
- The 0.8-14.5 micron Spectra of Mid-L to Mid-T Dwarfs: Diagnostics of Effective Temperature, Grain Sedimentation, Gas Transport, and Surface Gravity
- Thermal structure of an exoplanet atmosphere from phase-resolved emission spectroscopy
- Atmospheric Parameters of Field L and T Dwarfs
- Planetary Spectrum Generator: an accurate online radiative transfer suite for atmospheres, comets, small bodies and exoplanets
- Discoveries from a Near-infrared Proper Motion Survey using Multi-epoch 2MASS Data
- Compositional distributions and evolutionary processes for the near-Earth object population: Results from the MIT-Hawaii Near-Earth Object Spectroscopic Survey (MITHNEOS
- Techniques and Review of Absolute Flux Calibration from the Ultraviolet to the Mid-Infrared
- The Optical and Near-Infrared Transmission Spectrum of the Super-Earth GJ1214b: Further Evidence for a Metal-Rich Atmosphere
- A Correlation Between Inclination and Color in the Classical Kuiper Belt
- Evidence for Two Populations of Classical Transneptunian Objects: The Strong Inclination Dependence of Classical Binaries
- M Dwarfs in SDSS Stripe 82: Photometric Light Curves and Flare Rate Analysis
- Water Ice and Dust in the Innermost Coma of Comet 103P/Hartley 2
- The Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 Test of Surfaces in the Outer Solar System: The Compositional Classes of the Kuiper Belt
- The optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-32b: clouds explain the absence of broad spectral features?
- M Dwarf Flares from Time-Resolved SDSS Spectra
- The Surface of 2003EL61 in the Near Infrared
- The AllWISE Motion Survey, Part 2
- Multi-wavelength characterization of stellar flares on low-mass stars using SDSS and 2MASS time domain surveys
- Multicolor Observations of a Planetary Transit of HD 209458
- Comet 17P/Holmes in Outburst: The Near Infrared Spectrum
- Diverse Albedos of Small Trans-Neptunian Objects
- Olivine-dominated A-type asteroids in the Main Belt: Distribution, Abundance and Relation to Families
- A Proper Motion Survey Using the First Sky Pass of NEOWISE-Reactivation Data
- Water ice in the Kuiper belt
- Characterization of High Proper Motion Objects from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
- Methane, ammonia, and their irradiation products at the surface of an intermediate-size KBO? A portrait of Plutino (90482) Orcus
- A 0.8-2.4 Micron Transmission Spectrum of the Hot Jupiter CoRoT-1b
- Gemini/GMOS Transmission Spectral Survey: Complete Optical Transmission Spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-4b
- Exoplanet Atmosphere Measurements from Transmission Spectroscopy and other Planet-Star Combined Light Observations
- The Ch-class asteroids: Connecting a visible taxonomic class to a 3-μm band shape
- Gas Jet Morphology and the Very Rapidly Increasing Rotation Period of Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak
- Monitoring the atmospheric throughput at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory with aTmCam
- Colors of Trans-Neptunian Contact Binaries
- Flame: A Flexible Data Reduction Pipeline for Near-Infrared and Optical Spectroscopy