The commissioning of and first results from the UIST imager spectrometer

UIST is a facility class near-infrared instrument recently commissioned at the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). UIST provides a comprehensive imaging and spectroscopic facility with spatial resolution limited only by the delivered tip-tilt corrected seeing. In addition to long slit spectroscopic modes, UIST includes the first deployable cryogenic integral field unit in a common user instrument. We will present results obtained during the commissioning period in late 2002. These include measurements of the image quality and the sensitivities of the different observing modes of the instrument. We also discuss the use of an instrument-specific telescope pointing-model developed for UIST to allow the instrument to meet the stringent flexure requirements arising from the choice of 0.06arcsec/pixel and 0.12arcsec/pixel plate scales. We pay particular attention to the performance of the image slicing integral field unit (IFU). We will present astronomical results from the first year of UIST operations, during which time UIST carried out diverse programmes, from mineralogical studies of Mars to measuring the mass of the black hole at the centre of the most distant quasar.