CorMASS

cormass mug picture
The four different telescopes where CorMASS was used. From left to right are pictured Matt Nelson (UVa), Chuck Henderson (Cornell), Mike Skrutskie (UVa), and J.D. Smith (Univ of Toledo), critical collaborators on the project.

 

I designed and project managed the construction and operations of the Cornell Massachusetts Slit Spectrograph (CorMASS), a near-infrared cross-dispersed spectrograph with R~300.  Please see Wilson et al. 2001 for full details.  This project, a collaboration between Cornell and Mike Skrutskie at UMASS, formed the primary component of my thesis.  The instrument, designed for and used extensively on the Palomar 60-inch, went on to be used at the 1.8-m Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, the Apache Point Observatory 3.5-m Telescope, and the 6.5-m Magellan Telescope.  Its last use was in approx. 2006.

Science highlights include spectral confirmation of a very bright T-dwarf and Earthshine observations.