The PRime-focus Infrared Microlensing Experiments (PRIME) camera is part of the joint NASA-JAXA project supporting the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope engineering and science studies. It is installed on the 1.8m PRIME telescope with a ≈1.5 square degree FOV dedicated to the project. The instrument is equipped with multiple broad band and narrow band filters between 0.9μm to 1.8μm. The instrument is installed at the South African Astronomical Observatory and has been in continuous operation since October 2022. PRIME is currently surveying the Galactic bulge for microlensing events, GW and GRB studies and other science objectives, in advance of the Roman Space Telescope (RST) mission. After 1.5 years of on-sky operation, we present the use, performance and lessons learned operating RST’s yield demonstration lot H4RG-10 detectors as part of the PRIME camera based on the data processing and analysis tools that we have developed. With the large field of view in the near infrared bands this instrument is a powerful tool in the Southern hemisphere and a compliment to the instruments in the North and in the visible.
The PRime-focus Infrared Microlensing Experiment (PRIME) camera is part of the joint NASA-JAXA project in support of the spaceflight Roman Space Telescope project development. It is designed to accommodate the needs of the large-scale survey of the microlensing events in the Galactic bulge. The camera is placed in the prime focus of the 1.8-m telescope dedicated to this project. With four large-format infrared detectors, the instrument covers a field of view about 1.3 square degrees. Over the few years preceding and during the operations of the Roman Space Telescope, the instrument will be used for continuous monitoring of selected fields in the Galactic bulge for microlensing events and a number of other science programs of the consortium.
In this age of multi-messenger astronomy precipitated by the LIGO/Virgo observation of GW 170817, it is more important than ever to have instruments throughout the EM spectrum to perform follow-up observations. With the installation of an upgraded detector system and cross-dispersed ruled ZnSe grisms, and development of data reduction pipelines, the Rapid infrared IMAger Spectrometer (RIMAS) is ready to be at the frontier of this rapidly blossoming field. RIMAS is a near-infrared imager spectrometer (R≈25, R≈250, and R≈4000) designed to observe the afterglows of high-redshift GRBs in the Y, J, H and K bands once installed on the 4.3 meter Lowell Discovery Telescope located outside Flagstaff, AZ. In this paper, we discuss the performance of RIMAS’s high resolution spectrograph, which is enabled through the use of ruled ZnSe grisms working in high order echelle mode.
The Rapid infrared IMAger Spectrometer (RIMAS) is designed to quickly follow-up near-infrared (NIR) transient events, gamma ray bursts in particular. One way RIMAS will accomplish this mission is with its echelle spectrograph (R≈4000) that contain the first ruled grisms to be used in cross-dispersed mode for NIR astronomy. These ZnSe grisms were recently fabricated at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. This paper discusses the testing and categorization of the echelle spectrographs containing these grisms by comparing the modeled spectra to experimental spectra. This testing resulted in verification of the echelle spectrograph's quality, resolution, and dispersion. Efforts to develop a data reduction pipeline and upgrade RIMAS's detectors are ongoing.
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