Abstract Details

Name: Aarthy E
Affiliation: PRL, Ahmedabad
Conference ID: ASI2018_1281
Title : Near Infrared Polarimetry â€“ an add on to NICS at MIRO
Authors and Co-Authors : E Aarthy (PRL), Archita Rai (PRL), Shashikiran Ganesh (PRL), Santosh V Vadawale (PRL)
Abstract Type : Poster
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : The Near Infrared Camera and Spectrograph (NICS) is one of the back end instruments of the 1.2 m Cassegrain f/13 telescope located at the Mount Abu Infrared Observatory, PRL. NICS is capable of doing both photometry and spectroscopy covering a wide range of 0.8 to 2.5 Î¼m (Y, J, H, Ks) and has been serving as a work horse for the past several years to study diverse objects like AGN, galaxies, supernovae, novae and compact objects etc. In addition to the information obtained from photometry and spectroscopy, polarimetry provides insight into the geometry, magnetic field and even emission mechanisms in such sources. Hence to explore polarimetry in the near IR regime, a 25x25 mm wire grid polarizer has been added to the existing NICS. Preliminary tests for the polarizer have been carried out using 100% polarized and unpolarized lamp standards and polarized and unpolarized stars. Having optical polarization measurement with the 50 cm telescope of PRL, and the polarization capability of AstroSat CZTI, this near IR polarimeter provides a fantastic opportunity for simultaneous polarimetry over a wide range in wavelength. In this contribution the working of the polarimeter along with some initial science results would be discussed.