One of the goals of the Institute for Astrophysical Research is to design, develop and operate instrumentation and telescopes for astrophysical research. Since the IAR's inception in 1998, IAR members have designed, built, and deployed three instruments that are now in regular use: MIRSI, PRISM, and Mimir.
MIRSI- mid-IR spectrometer and imager
- spectral range: 2 to 28 microns
- currently a facility instrument at the IRTF in Hawaii
- diffraction-limited at the IRTF (0.27 arcsec/pixel)
- field of view at the IRTF: 85 x 64 arcsec
- spectral resolution in imaging mode: up to 1% bandwidth
- spectral resolution in spectroscopic mode: 200 at 10 microns, 100 at 20 microns
- point source sensitivity (1 sigma in 60 seconds): 20 mJy at 10 microns, 100 mJy at 20 microns
- the primary optical instrument for the Perkins telescope
- imaging, slit and multi-object spectroscopy, and polarimetry
- field of view: 13.65 x 13.65 arcminutes
- pixel scale: 0.39 arcsec/pixel
- spectral resolution: R = 140 to 850
- spectral coverage: 350 nm to 950 nm
- the primary near-IR instrument for the Perkins telescope
- two imaging modes, spectroscopy, and polarimetry
- fields of view: 10 x 10 arcmin and 3 x 3 arcmin
- pixel scales: 0.58 arcsec/pixel and 0.18 arcsec/pixel
- spectral resolution: R = 120 to 550
- spectral coverage: 1.16 microns to 5.6 microns
- polarimetric efficiency: 91.2 ± 2.5%
- average instrumental polarization: 0.35 ± 0.02%