The SAURON project - I. The panoramic integral-field spectrograph

• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04612.x
• Publication Date: 2003-03-12T13:46:07Z
• Authors: R. Bacon; Y. Copin; G. Monnet; Bryan W. Miller; J.R. Allington-Smith; M. Bureau; C. Marcella Carollo; Roger L. Davies; Eric Emsellem; Harald Kuntschner; Reynier F. Peletier; E.K. Verolme; P. Tim de Zeeuw
• Keywords: William Herschel Telescope; Integral field spectrograph; Stellar kinematics

A new integral-field spectrograph, SAURON, is described. It based on the TIGER principle, and uses a lenslet array. SAURON has large field of view high throughput, allows simultaneous sky subtraction. Its design optimized for studies stellar kinematics, gas line-strength distributions nearby early-type galaxies. The instrument specifications are described, as well extensive analysis software which was developed to obtain fully calibrated spectra, associated kinematic measurements. companion paper will report first results obtained with William Herschel Telescope.