Abstract SOIFER, B. T. AST-9618686 Funds will be used to construct a near-infrared integral field spectrograph to be used on the 200-inch telescope of the Palomar Observatory. The instrument will permit unique and detailed studies of a wide variety of astrophysical environments such as star forming regions, the Galactic center, starburst galaxies, Seyfert galaxies, ultraluminous infrared galaxies, and high redshift radio galaxies. The imaging spectrograph will provide simultaneous two- dimensional spatial information and spectral information over a field of view of 5" x 10". Slit widths will be ~ 0.7", delivering a resolution, R = 1500, corresponding to a velocity full width at half maximum of unresolved spectral lines measuring ~ 200 km/sec. Velocity centroids of high signal-to-noise spectral features will be measurable to < 20 km/sec. An innovative component of the instrument is a simple design for the construction of the image-slicing front end and the use of two slits to double the field of view above that of a spectrograph with a single slit. The instrument will be patterned closely after a recently constructed longslit near-infrared spectrograph. An existing infrared camera will be used as the detector for the instrument.
