The Arizona Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy (ALES) is the world’s first AO-fed thermal infrared integral field spectrograph, mounted inside the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI) on the LBT. An initial mode of ALES allows 3-4 μm spectra at R 20 with 0.026” spaxels over a 1”x1” field-of-view. We are in the process of upgrading ALES with additional wavelength ranges, spectral resolutions, and plate scales allowing a broad suite of science that takes advantage of ALES’s unique ability to work at wavelengths >2 microns, and at the diffraction limit of the LBT’s full 23.8 meter aperture.

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Andrew J. Skemer, Philip Hinz, Jordan Stone, Michael Skrutskie, Charles E. Woodward, Jarron Leisenring, and Zackery Briesemeister, "ALES: overview and upgrades," Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107020C (Presented at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation: June 10, 2018; Published: 6 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314091.