CoolSpec is a near-infrared grating spectrometer developed for the 2.7m Harlan Smith telescope at McDonald Observatory on Mt. Locke. Development of CoolSpec was supported by NSF and the University of Texas

Note: Prospective users requiring at-the-telescope observing assistance or guidance are asked to coordinate their needs with Dan Lester before submitting an observing proposal!

CoolSpec has many unique features and was developed as a stand-alone spectrograph for a separate infrared imager. This allows the imager to be shared among direct imaging and spectroscopy. The input and output beams of CoolSpec are thus identical.

At 1-3µm, the thermal background contributed by the spectrograph is on the exponential side of the blackbody function. As a result, the background is very sensitive to the temperature, so even modest cooling makes it a negligible source of noise. Since it is in a separate dewar, the imager array can still be kept very cold. ROKCAM is the imager system presently used by CoolSpec.

This web site describes the instrument, and presents information with which the user can plan an observing run. Please give feedback to me on CoolSpec issues.