The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2012-03, Vol.421 (1), p.872-893
• Main Authors: Croom, Scott M., Lawrence, Jon S., Bland-Hawthorn, Joss, Bryant, Julia J., Fogarty, Lisa, Richards, Samuel, Goodwin, Michael, Farrell, Tony, Miziarski, Stan, Heald, Ron, Jones, D. Heath, Lee, Steve, Colless, Matthew, Brough, Sarah, Hopkins, Andrew M., Bauer, Amanda E., Birchall, Michael N., Ellis, Simon, Horton, Anthony, Leon-Saval, Sergio, Lewis, Geraint, López-Sánchez, Á. R., Min, Seong-Sik, Trinh, Christopher, Trowland, Holly
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astronomy; galaxies: general; galaxies: kinematics and dynamics; instrumentation: spectrographs; Spectrum analysis; Stars & galaxies; surveys; techniques: imaging spectroscopy
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.20365.x

We demonstrate a novel technology that combines the power of the multi-object spectrograph with the spatial multiplex advantage of an integral field spectrograph (IFS). The Sydney-AAO (Australian Astronomical Observatory) Multi-object IFS (SAMI) is a prototype wide-field system at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) that allows 13 imaging fibre bundles ('hexabundles') to be deployed over a 1-degree diameter field of view. Each hexabundle comprises 61 lightly fused multi-mode fibres with reduced cladding and yields a 75 per cent filling factor. Each fibre core diameter subtends 1.6 arcsec on the sky and each hexabundle has a field of view of 15 arcsec diameter. The fibres are fed to the flexible AAOmega double-beam spectrograph, which can be used at a range of spectral resolutions (R=λ/δλ≈ 1700-13 000) over the optical spectrum (3700-9500 Å). We present the first spectroscopic results obtained with SAMI for a sample of galaxies at z≈ 0.05. We discuss the prospects of implementing hexabundles at a much higher multiplex over wider fields of view in order to carry out spatially resolved spectroscopic surveys of 104-105 galaxies.