Instruments

Important: Current Status Report

Subaru Telescope has a suite of eight facility instruments providing imaging and spectroscopic capabilities over the full range of wavelengths from optical to mid-infrared.

• AO188 - Subaru 188-elements Adaptive Optics system - delivers diffraction-limited images in the near-infrared.
• FOCAS - Faint Object Camera And Spectrograph - provides optical imaging and longslit and multi-slit spectroscopy over a 6 arcmin field of view.
• HDS - High Dispersion Spectrograph - provides extremely high-resolution optical spectroscopy.
• HSC - Hyper Suprime-Cam - provides optical imaging over a very large field of view (1.5 degree diameter) with a mosaic of CCDs.
• IRCS - Infrared Camera and Spectrograph - provides high-angular resolution imaging combined with AO188, low-resolution grism and high-resolution echelle spectroscopies over 0.9-5.6 microns.

  Visiting instruments^* (Procedures to carry-in Visiting instruments )

  • CHARIS - Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph - provides high contrast images of exoplanets, disks, brown dwarfs with SCExAO+AO188. [PIs: J. Kasdin, T. D. Groff, J. Lozi, O. Guyon]
  • FastPDI - Polarization differential imaging (PDI) with a high speed (>kHz) near-IR (950 - 1860 nm) low-noise camera (C-RED One), optimized for high contrast imaging of circumstellar disks with SCExAO+AO188. [PIs: J. Lozi, T. Kudo, O. Guyon]
  • IRD - Infrared Doppler - provides high spectral resolution echelle spectroscopy and radial velocity measurements from 0.97 to 1.75 um simultaneously combined with AO188. [PIs: T. Kotani, M. Tamura]
  • MEC - MKID Exoplanet Camera is a near-IR (800-1400nm) photon-counting low-resolution (R~5) integral field spectrograph optimized for high contrast imaging with SCExAO+AO188. [PIs: B. Mazin, O. Guyon]
  • REACH - Rigorous Exoplanetary Atmosphere Characterization with High dispersion coronography - connects the high-contrast instrument (SCExAO) to the high-resolution IR spectrograph (IRD) at the Subaru Telescope (IRD+SCExAO+AO188). [PIs: T. Kotani, H. Kawahara, J. Lozi, M. Tamura, O. Guyon]
  • SCExAO - Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics - delivers high contrast images of the innermost surrounding of bright sources to CHARIS and VAMPIRES. [PI: O. Guyon]
  • SWIMS : Simultaneous-color Wide-field Infrared Multi-object Spectrograph - provides simultaneous two-color imaging or 0.9-2.5 micron low-resolution multi-object spectroscopy in a single exposure over a 3.3 arcmin x 6.6 arcmin field of view. [PI: K. Motohara]
  • VAMPIRES - Visible Aperture Masking Polarimetric Imager for Resolved Exoplanetary Structures - provides diffraction limited scattered-light imaging of circumstellar environments with sparse aperture masking interferometry (non-redundant masking) combining with differential polarimetry. [PIs: P. Tuthill, B. Norris, O. Guyon]

  Visiting devices^*

  • NsIR Wave Plate Unit - which is used in IRCS polarimetry mode and a part of SCExAO+CHARIS/VAMPIRES polarimetry mode. [PI: M. Tamura]

  (*) Observing proposals using the visiting instruments and devices must include the relevant instrument/device PIs as Co-investigators.

  Hibernated instruments

  • MOIRCS - Multi-Object Infrared Camera and Spectrograph - provides imaging and low-resolution spectroscopy from 0.9-2.5 microns over a 4 arcmin x 7 arcmin field of view (not available due to hibernation for S21A-S22B).

  Decommissioned instruments

  • AO36 - Subaru 36-elements Adaptive Optics system - delivers diffraction-limited images in the near-infrared.
  • CIAO - Coronagraphic Imager - provides a near-infrared imaging capability in the vicinity of bright sources.
  • COMICS - Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrograph - provides imaging and spectroscopy from 7.5-25 microns (not available since S20B).
  • HiCIAO - High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics - provides a near-infrared imaging capability in the vicinity of bright sources. Although HiCIAO+AO188 has been extensively used in the SEEDS project and openuse programs, this mode is no longer available since S16B. HiCIAO will be used as a camera combined with SCExAO only (opening until S17B).
  • CISCO/OHS - Cooled Infrared Spectrograph and Camera for OHS - provides imaging and low-resolution spectroscopy in the near-infrared.
  • FMOS - Fiber Multi Object Spectrograph - provides fiber-fed multi-object spectroscopy from 0.9-1.8 microns over a 30 arcmin field of view.
  • Kyoto3DII - Kyoto tridimensional spectrograph II - provides Fabry-Perot / filter imaging and integral field / long-slit spectroscopy in the optical (opening until S17A).
  • RAVEN - Multi-Object Adaptive Optics(MOAO) demonstrator - delivers diffraction limited images in 2 science channels to IRCS.
  • Suprime-Cam - Subaru Prime Focus Camera - provides optical imaging over a large field of view with a mosaic of CCDs (opening until S17A).

A number of exposure time calculators are available.

The following figure and tables should help you decide which instrument(s) is right for your needs.

Spectroscopic capabilities

Instrument	Resolution (slit width)	Slit length	Pixel scale
FOCAS	250-7500 (0.4")	6', multi	0.1"
HDS	32000 (1") - 160000 (0.2")	10", 60"	0.138"
IRCS (grism)	50 (0.9") - 1400 (0.1")	6.5-20"	0.020", 0.052"
IRCS (echelle)	5000 (0.54") - 20000 (0.14")	3.47-9.37"	0.055"
MOIRCS	463-3180 (0.5")	multi	0.116"

Imaging capabilities

Instrument	Field of view	Pixel scale	Filters
FOCAS	6' diameter	0.1"	14
HSC	1.5 degree diameter	0.16"	6
IRCS	21", 54"	0.020", 0.052"	18
MOIRCS	4' x 7'	0.116"	3

General enquiries may be directed to Dr. Tae-Soo Pyo ().

8 Feb, 2021