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MOIRCS User Filters/Grisms Acceptance Policy

Making User Filters/Grisms

We have been accepting user filters/grisms since S07A. However, the number of vacant slots on the filter/grism turret is VERY LIMITED. You should first check the current availability of slots with the Support Astronomer (SA) before starting the project.

MOIRCS filters/grisms are stored in the main dewar which is cooled to 120K. A thermal cycle of the main dewar requires significant cost, manpower, and time. So currently the chance of putting new filters/grisms is usually limited to once a year (usually in summer). Although we will make every effort to accommodate the installation, we cannot guarantee that your filters will be installed in MOIRCS by the date you need them. Even if you find a problem with your filter/grism after installation, we cannot remove it until the next thermal cycle. Enough tests should be done before bringing your filters/grisms to the Observatory.

Users planning to make your custom filters/grisms MUST first make contact with the SA for the filter/grism specification. Please submit a proposal for the user filter/grism in any arbitrary format, but include a clear description of how the team plans to develop and inspect it. We may reject the proposal if the development plan is poor. It is highly recommended that your team includes specialists of filters/grisms who can take charge of any handling/inspection.

User Filter/Grism Acceptance Policy

The user filter acceptance policy can be found here. The user grism policy is also to be available soon (basically follows the same policy).

Opening User Filters/Grisms to the Community

We require you to open the filters/grisms to the community 1.5 years after they are first used for your science. We also request that they be opened two years after installation on MOIRCS, regardless of whether they have been used for science.

The Use of the Opened Filters/Grisms

Many of MOIRCS narrow-band and medium-band filters are kindly provided by the owners to the community. It is strongly recommended that observers using these filters give acknowledgement to the providers in their papers when publishing data based on the filters.

  • The BrG_ON and BrG_OFF filters were made by the team led by Dr. Kumiko Morihana (NAOJ) for their project (Kakenhi Kiban-B 23K25884) and opened to the community.

  • MBJ2, MBH2, MBK2 filters (the J2H2K2 filter) were made by the team led by Dr. Yusei Koyama (NAOJ) in 2025 with the financial aid of the Kakenhi International Leading Research fund (22K21349, PI: Satoshi Miyazaki).

  • The MBK3 & MBK4 filters were made by the team led by Dr. Yusei Koyama (NAOJ) in 2021 with the financial aid of Subaru GLAO A-Project (ULTIMATE-Subaru Project).

  • NB2083 was donated by Prof. Nobunari Kashikawa (Tokyo Univ.) in 2020.

  • The filters NB1550, NB1657, NB2071, NB2095, and NB2315 were provided by Prof. Tadayuki Kodama (Tohoku Univ.).

  • CO filter was provided by Profs. Yoshi Taniguchi (Open University of Japan) and Takashi Ichikawa (Tohoku Univ. retired).

  • For the VPH and the LightSmyth grisms, please see the dedicated webpage for citation information (VPH, LS).

Please note that any description in this document is subject to change without prior notice if necessary.

Updated on July 30, 2025