Announcements
Near-IR calibrations are discussed in detail on the general Near-IR Resources page, as they are generally similar for NIFS and Gemini's other NIR instruments.
Note that when selecting telluric standard stars, an accurate airmass match is often critical.
A baseline calibration set (not charged to the PI) is taken for each observation, generally the minimum calibrations necessary to ensure the utility of the observations in the archive. Additional calibrations may be defined by the PI as necessary, but time needs to be requested for these in the observing proposal. Flat-fielding and wavelength calibration of NIFS spectra are carried out using the facility calibration unit.
A NIFS grating change can introduce a spectrum shift of 1-2 pixels along the dispersion direction. Therefore, at each grating setting, an arc frame should be taken and it should be treated as a "nighttime partner" observation. For a proper observation setup, follow examples in the OT Library.
Information, catalogues and search engines for spectroscopic standard stars can be found on the Near-IR Resources page.